The Supreme Court on Monday verbally remarked that in West Bengal, the Election Commission appeared to have deviated from the special intensive revision procedure that it had adopted in other states by introducing a new category of “logical discrepancy”, Live Law reported.
In the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, logical discrepancies refer to a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being more than six.
However, the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi dismissed the petition by persons whose appeals against exclusions from the voter rolls are pending before appellate tribunals, Live Law reported. But the court allowed the petitioners to pursue their appeals before the tribunals.
It clarified that “necessary consequences shall follow” if the petitioners’ appeals are allowed, Live Law reported.
The court also noted on Monday that it cannot allow persons to vote in the West Bengal Assembly elections whose appeals challenging their exclusion from the voter list are pending before the appellate tribunals, Bar and Bench reported. More than 34 lakh such appeals have been filed before the appellate tribunals, the bench noted.
However, the court indicated that it might consider the plea to allow the publication of supplementary electoral rolls to include the persons whose appeals are accepted before polling, Live Law reported.
During the hearing on Monday, Bagchi also questioned the Election Commission on what would happen if the winning margin of a candidate was less than the number of voters excluded during the revision process.
“Suppose margin is 2% and 15% of electorate who are mapped could not vote, then maybe, we are not expressing any opinion, but we would definitely have to apply our minds,” Live Law quoted him as having remarked.
Bagchi said that there was a need to have a “robust appellate mechanism” to hear appeals by persons deleted from the electoral rolls.
Further, the judge remarked that the poll panel deviated from its stand in Bihar that individuals mapped in the 2002 voter rolls would not need to upload documents.
The Election Commission on February 28 published the final electoral roll for West Bengal, showing that more than 61 lakh voters had been excluded. However, the process had 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.
Several supplementary lists were released, in which the names of more voters have been included.
The petitioners demanded that the date of freezing of the electoral rolls, April 9, should be extended so that they can vote in the upcoming Assembly elections, Live Law reported.
The polls will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 4.
The petitioners had said that they had been mapped in the 2002 electoral rolls, and that they have Aadhaar cards and passports.
Initially, Kant had expressed reluctance to intervene in the matter, saying that the appellate tribunals should decide on the cases, according to Live Law. However, the counsel for the petitioners contended that the Election Commission was not cooperating with the tribunals by not producing documentary material.
Bagchi was then quoted as saying: “When the Bihar SIR was argued, the submissions of ECI were unequivocal that the 2002 list members need not give any document. Please see your written submissions in the Bihar case. You had said the 2002 electorate need not give documents.”
Lawyer Dama Seshadri Naidu, representing the poll panel, said that such persons do not need to upload documents, except those showing they are the same person as the one mentioned in the 2002 rolls, Bar and Bench reported.
To this, Bagchi remarked: “Now you are improvising the submissions which you made earlier.”
The judge also said that judicial officers who are taking part in the appellate process also would have made some errors during the adjudication process.
“If you go through 1,000 documents a day, if accuracy is 70% then the activity should be rated as excellent,” Bar and Bench quoted Bagchi as saying. “So, margin of error will be there and we need a robust appellate forum.”
Nearly 91 lakh voters have been removed from West Bengal’s voter lists as part of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls. The deletions represent nearly 11.9% of the state’s electorate of 7.6 crore that existed before the revision process began.
The process had concluded on April 6 after judicial officers adjudicated the 60 lakh claims and objections. However, voters who were removed during the adjudication process can appeal in 19 tribunals set up for the purpose.
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 appellate tribunals composed of former High Court chief justices and judges to hear appeals against exclusions. A person whose claim for inclusion in the electoral rolls has been rejected by a judicial officer can approach the tribunal.
Also read: Millions of Bengalis may lose their vote. Not over citizenship but due to clerical errors
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