West Bengal SIR: What Happens To Voters Excluded From Voter List? SC Seeks Full Details From ECI

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission (EC) to submit data on the pendency and disposal of appeals before tribunals challenging the exclusion or inclusion of voters in electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana observed that the appeals need to be adjudicated in a time-bound manner.

The bench asked the EC to explain the steps being taken to streamline the disposal of pending appeals and how many additional tribunals may be required.

“Let the Election Commission file a reply specifying how many appeals are pending before Tribunals. The pending appeals be segregated, and it may be disclosed as to how many appeals at the instance of voters who were excluded/included or their cross appeals,” the bench said.

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The EC will also have to inform the court how many additional tribunals are required to be constituted.

During the hearing, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that individuals were unable to obtain information on the number of appeals pending or disposed of by the tribunals, as the data was not available in the public domain.

Banerjee said municipal and panchayat elections were approaching and argued that voters whose names had been deleted would be unable to cast their votes.

“I have given data of 31 Assembly seats. Kindly get the report from them on how many appeals have been filed, and how many have been disposed of,” he submitted.

The top court, however, said its scrutiny would not be restricted to the 31 constituencies.

“Our concern will be about all. Appeals need to be adjudicated in a time-bound manner. If need be, we will appoint more tribunals,” the bench said.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for another set of petitioners, referred to a reply given to a Member of Parliament and said the information was “appalling”.

He submitted that a large number of appeals filed before SIR appellate tribunals were actually not by excluded voters.

Senior advocate DS Naidu, appearing for the EC, told the court that the poll panel had been coordinating with appellate tribunals to examine ways to streamline the appeal disposal process.

The top court was hearing pleas seeking measures to streamline and expedite the disposal of appeals before the SIR appellate tribunals.

On April 24, the apex court had directed appellate tribunals to give out-of-turn hearings to those who made a case for urgent consideration against deletion from electoral rolls following the SIR in West Bengal.

Approximately 700 judicial officers from West Bengal and neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand were deployed to deal with around 60 lakh claims and objections.

Later, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, at the direction of the Supreme Court, set up 19 tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and judges to decide the appeals.

(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by The Daily Jagran staff and has been published through syndicated feed by PTI.)