India, Oct. 15 -- New Delhi

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the October 10 protests against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar adversely impacted the lives of ordinary citizens, with Metro ridership falling by nearly 45% as many commuters chose not to travel, even as all scheduled train services continued to operate.

In an affidavit filed a day before the matter is scheduled to be heard, the DMRC said around 3.2 million passengers travelled on its network on October 10, against the usual second-Saturday average of 5.8 million. It attributed the sharp decline to the protests, which, it said, appeared to have prompted people to forego their usual daily activities, including attending...