SC asks ECI for Bengal SIR data on appeals decided by appellate tribunals

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India to furnish data on the number of appeals disposed of by appellate tribunals dealing with cases arising out of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

A three-member bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana passed the order on a plea related to the functioning of appellate tribunals in West Bengal.

"You need to give us the quantum of disposals so far because just filing an appeal is not enough. What is happening to the appeals also has to be seen," Justice Bagchi told ECI's counsel.


The bench also said that the grievance related to denial of public distribution system (PDS) benefits to those deleted from the electoral rolls would have to be raised before the Calcutta High Court in a separate case.

"If you enlarge the scope of your petition to PDS, we will not be able to entertain it. It has to go to the high court. But, if you are monitoring the appellate tribunals, we will consider looking at it," justice Bagchi added.

Counsel for the petitioner, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, argued that the SIR deletions were being used to deny people PDS. He referred to the slow progress of appeals before appellate tribunals. Justice Bagchi said the main issue was the quantum of disposals and not deletion or non-deletion of voters from the electoral list.

Main issue: Disposals

"You need to rethink the entire architecture of the appellate tribunal. There are things like online access to judges. There are a lot of futuristic things which can be done. But the main issue is the quantum of disposals," justice Bagchi told ECI.