Bengal SIR: Congress candidate restored as voter after EC fails to provide reason for deletion

The Appellate Tribunal set up in Kolkata, to hear applications of those deleted from West Bengal’s voter lists, on Sunday restored the name of Motab Shaikh, the Congress candidate from Farakka for the upcoming Assembly elections, reported The Indian Express.

Shaikh’s is the first case to be decided by the tribunal.

In his order, TS Sivagnanam, a retired chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, noted that the Election Commission had cited “technical reasons” for not providing the circumstances leading to Shaikh’s name being deleted during the adjudication process, reported the newspaper.

This came days ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal, which will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. The results will be announced on May 4.

West Bengal is also among the 12 states and Union Territories where the special intensive revision of the electoral roll was undertaken.

On February 28, the Election Commission published the final electoral roll for West Bengal, showing that more than 61 lakh voters had been excluded.

However, the process continued with about 60 lakh “doubtful and pending” cases remaining under adjudication based on their objections to their exclusions from the draft rolls published in December.

On February 20, the Supreme Court ordered that judicial officers of the rank of district judge or additional district judge be appointed to help complete the revision exercise in the state.

On March 10, the top court ordered the formation of an Appellate Tribunal composed of former High Court chief justices and judges to hear appeals against exclusions from voter lists in West Bengal.

A person whose claim for inclusion in the electoral rolls has been rejected by a judicial officer can approach the tribunal.

With days to go for the Assembly polls, the Election Commission is yet to physically set up the 19 tribunals it had constituted, reported The Indian Express.

The order in Shaikh’s case “proves how genuine voters’ names have been deleted from electoral rolls”, his lawyer Firdaus Shamim told the newspaper.

What the tribunal said

Sivagnanam directed the Election Commission to declare Shaikh a valid voter of Murshidabad through an additional list by 8 pm on Sunday.

He stated that the passport submitted by Shaikh was sufficient proof, pointing out that there was no discrepancy in his father’s name in any record.

“The appellant also placed before the tribunal his family tree and submitted that, except the appellant, all the family members, which include his six siblings, their respective spouses and children, have been included in the voters’ list and no discrepancy has been found,” The Indian Express quoted the retired judge as observing.

He also stated that he “could not peruse the reasons given by the adjudicating judicial officer for excluding the appellant’s name”.

This came days after the Supreme Court, on April 2, told Shaikh to approach the tribunal against the deletion of his name from the voter rolls, reported Live Law.

The Congress candidate had moved the court seeking restoration of his name to the electoral roll and permission to file his nomination papers. He had also sought directions for the Appellate Tribunals to be immediately operationalised.

The Election Commission has published several supplementary voter lists following adjudications.

Till Saturday, 57 lakh of the 60 lakh cases had been processed, The Indian Express quoted the West Bengal chief electoral officer’s office as saying. However, the poll panel had not clarified how many of these cases resulted in deletions.

When judicial officers had decided about 49 lakh cases, the poll panel said that nearly 22 lakh, or 45%, resulted in deletions, reported the newspaper.

Also read: Millions of Bengalis may lose their vote. Not over citizenship but due to clerical errors