NEW DELHI: India's Supreme Court ordered the government and the national election body on Monday to explain decisions linked to a large-scale revision of voter rolls that prompted accusations of wrongdoing.

Opposition parties and activists have organised protests and called for the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, head of the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that the revision had improperly removed millions of names from voter lists.

Critics have accused Kumar of acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

The ECI, the constitutional body responsible for conducting elections in the world's largest democracy, has rejected allegations of wrongdoing.