NEW DELHI: Nearly 27 lakh of the 60 lakh whose claims for inclusion in West Bengal’s electoral roll were put in the “doubtful” category during the special intensive revision exercise may not be able to vote in the ensuing assembly polls, with judicial officers overseeing adjudication rejecting their claims. The electoral roll for the Bengal assembly polls’ first phase – scheduled for April 23 – was to be frozen by Monday midnight. Supreme Court, which was informed of the final deletions by the Calcutta HC, on Monday rejected pleas of Bengal govt and TMC supporters for inclusion of names of people whose appeals against deletion by judicial officers are pending with the 19 special appellate tribunals headed by retired HC chief justices and judges. “The claims have been scrutinised by judicial officers performing the task of electoral registration officers. We allowed inclusion of names of those cleared by the judicial officers by providing for supplementary lists beyond the publication of the final voter list (on Feb 28). This cannot be stretched to the outcome of appeals before the appellate tribunals against rejections,”SC said.
Deletions stand at 88.8L, 11.6% of electorate
If the tribunals are asked to adjudicate lakhs of appeals by April 15, it will not only become a crushing burden on the tribunals but also create chaos,” said a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.In addition to the 60 lakh categorised as “doubtful”, another 61.7 lakh names of people were taken off the roll during SIR after they were found to have passed away, shifted, registered at two places or who could not be traced.The deletions after adjudication stand at around 88.8 lakh, which is 11.6% of the electorate at the start of SIR. As per Section 23(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the voter list for phase 2 will be frozen on April 9 (last day of nomination).The bench said 700-odd judicial officers deployed for the Bengal SIR have performed a miracle by completing adjudication of over 60 lakh claims.Appearing for the Bengal govt and TMC supporters, advocate Shyam Divan said as many as seven lakh appeals have been filed and many more are going to be filed, and suggested that those appeals be decided by April 15 to enable inclusion in the final list.The bench said it had exercised its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to deploy judicial officers to scrutinise claims and objections, given the trust deficit between the state and EC.Advocate Kapil Sibal said at least appellate tribunals could be empowered to give interim direction on prima facie satisfaction for inclusion of those mapped voters, who had voted earlier, to be included in the final list.SC said since the tribunals are manned by seasoned former judges and ex-chief justices, it would be prudent to leave it to a committee, to be set up by Calcutta HC CJ, to decide the procedure to be uniformly adopted by the 19 tribunals for deciding appeals.EC, through senior advocate D S Naidu, informed SC that the infrastructure facilities for the tribunals have been provided for and that the tribunals can start functioning at full swing.