The Supreme Court on Monday directed that the deadline for scrutinising documents and objections under the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal be extended at least for a week after February 14, reported Live Law.
The final electoral rolls were earlier scheduled to be published on February 14.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria also ordered the West Bengal director general of police to respond to the Election Commission’s allegations that the exercise to revise electoral rolls in the state was marred by violence and intimidation, reported Bar and Bench.
“We will not allow any impediment in conduct of SIR,” the chief justice was quoted as saying. “This must be clear to all states.”
The court passed the order in a batch of petitions challenging the exercise in West Bengal. A petition by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, contending that the special intensive revision of poll rolls is being conducted in a partisan and hurried manner ahead of the Assembly elections, was also listed alongside them.
Assembly elections in the state are expected to be held by April.
On Monday, the bench issued a list of directions to “streamline the process” and with a “view to address the apprehensions raised by different stakeholders”, reported Live Law.
It told the Trinamool Congress government in the state to ensure that all 8,550 Group B officers, whose list was submitted to the court on Monday, report to the electoral registration officer on Tuesday.
“After briefly scrutinising their biodata, these state government officials may be imparted a brief training of a day or two so as to work as the micro observers,” the court added, according to Bar and Bench.
Banerjee had contended before the court that the micro-observers, who were appointed by the Election Commission from other states, had been given “extra-legal roles”.
The poll panel had stated that it was compelled to appoint micro-observers as the West Bengal government was not cooperating with it.
The Supreme Court said on Monday that the micro-observers will only assist the electoral registration officers and “are not the decision-making authority”.
“Since new set of government officials have been inducted, the process of scrutinising documents submitted by affected persons is likely to take more time and as suggested on behalf of some of the petitioners, we direct that one week more time shall be granted beyond February 14 to the ERO to complete scrutiny and take a decision,” the bench was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
The court also noted that the poll panel had flagged the alleged mass-burning of Form 7 objections, reported Live Law.
It pointed to its January 19 order, when the court had asked the West Bengal police to ensure that law and order were maintained.
In her petition, the West Bengal chief minister had sought the court’s direction that the upcoming elections be conducted on the basis of the existing electoral rolls prepared last year.
On February 4, the poll panel told the Supreme Court that the sanctity of the 2025 electoral rolls was questionable.
It said that this was because the draft electoral rolls for West Bengal under the voter roll revision exercise published on December 16 showed that the names of more than 58 lakh voters were removed from lists as they had either died, migrated outside the state or did not submit their enumeration forms.
The deletion from the draft roll is provisional and citizens can object to their names being removed from the list. Citizens whose names have been dropped from the list can file their claims and objections.
The poll panel further said that it had raised “logical discrepancy” objections against 1.2 crore persons.
The court has been hearing a batch of petitions against the validity of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in several states, including West Bengal. The exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.
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