Bengal SIR: SC allows additional civil judges for electoral roll verification
The court directed the Election Commission of India (EC) to bear the expenses for deploying judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 22) allowed the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to deploy additional civil judges and requisition judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha to handle nearly 80 lakh claims and objections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
A Bench led by Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, took note of a letter from the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice stating that 250 district judges currently assigned to the SIR exercise would require around 80 days to process the large volume of claims and objections.
Civil judges to be deployed amid time constraints
Considering the scale of the task and time constraints, the bench permitted the deployment of civil judges to expedite the process. It also directed the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to coordinate with counterparts in Jharkhand and Odisha to requisition judicial officers of equivalent rank for faster disposal of cases related to the electoral roll revision.
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The court directed the Election Commission of India (EC) to bear the expenses for deploying judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha.
Final electoral foll on Feb 28
The top court allowed the EC to publish the final electoral roll on February 28 and clarified that the poll panel may issue supplementary lists as the verification process continues.
Exercising plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the court permitted inclusion of verified voters in supplementary electoral rolls linked to the February 28 final publication.
Data mismatch issues in voter verification
The court also took note of logical discrepancies in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list, including mismatches in parents’ names and abnormal age gaps—less than 15 years or more than 50 years—between voters and their parents.
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On February 20, expressing concern over the ongoing tussle between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission, the court issued an “extraordinary” direction to deploy serving and former district judges to assist the poll panel in the controversy-hit SIR exercise.
Ruing the “unfortunate blame game” and the “trust deficit” between the poll panel and the democratically elected All India Trinamool Congress government in the state, the bench issued fresh directions to ensure timely completion of the SIR process.
(With agency inputs)