Bengal SIR: SC to seek report from Calcutta High Court on functioning of tribunals

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will ask the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court to submit a report on the same day amid allegations that the appellate tribunals set up to hear appeals in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal were not functioning, PTI reported.

Advocate Devadatt Kamat cited reports to submit before the bench that the appellate tribunals “are not functioning”, The Indian Express reported.

The lawyer is representing a group of persons whose names had been removed from the voter list during the exercise and who had challenged the decision before the tribunals.

“Lawyers are not being allowed,” PTI quoted Kamat as having told the court. “They are only taking internet and computer-based applications.”

Chief Justice Surya Kant expressed displeasure that matters related to the revision exercise in Bengal were being mentioned before the court almost every day, the news agency reported.

Kamat then said that the orders passed by the court were not being followed.

He filed an application seeking that the hearings be expedited so that the names of the petitioners could appear on the supplementary list if their appeals are upheld.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to publish a supplementary electoral roll in West Bengal to include voters whose appeals against deletions have been accepted by the appellate tribunals.

Persons whose appeals have been cleared by the tribunals before April 21 should be included for voting in the first phase of Assembly elections, the court had said. Those who are cleared by April 27 should be included in the final electoral rolls for the second phase of the polls.

All decisions made by the tribunals on the addition and deletion of voters by those dates must be reflected in the final voter lists.

The first phase of polling will be held on April 23 and the second on April 29. The votes will be counted on May 4.

On Monday, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra alleged on social media that “all 19 appellate tribunals for SIR hearings housed in the same building in Joka is closed for entry, guarded by CAPF [Central Armed Police Forces]”.

“Nobody [has] been called, no hearings have happened,” Moitra alleged, adding that 27 lakh persons were waiting. Joka is an area located south of Kolkata in South 24 Parganas district.

This came after the Election Commission froze the electoral rolls for the first phase of polling on April 9.

SIR appellate tribunals

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 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.

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.

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