West Bengal SIR: SC to consider plea against EC's decision to freeze electoral rolls ahead of polls

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on April 13 a fresh plea along with pending ones challenging the freezing of electoral rolls by the Election Commission ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.

The poll panel has frozen and finalised the electoral rolls on April 9 for the assembly seats which are going to polls in the first stage.

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Assembly elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29 and votes will be counted for all polls on May 4.

The freezing of electoral rolls means that no new person, who has been deleted, can be added to the voters list for this assembly polls.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was urged by a lawyer to take up the plea against freezing on an urgent basis.

The lawyer said many appeals against deletions from the electoral rolls are still pending and the poll panel has frozen the rolls on April 9.

"We will consider the petition on April 13," the CJI said.

Senior advocate D S Naidu, appearing for the poll panel, said the freezing date was April 9 and after that none will be considered.

"Right to vote remains, these appellants are similarly situated like others whose appeals were allowed," Naidu said.

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"What was the architecture ...we are thinking. There is a cut-off line with respect to an election, and underlying is a constitutional right to be on the electoral roll and to vote in further elections. That is much higher and permanent," Justice Bagchi said.

The CJI said the person is not being deprived permanently.

On April 6, the bench noted that around 60 lakh claims and objections of those removed from voters' lists in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal have been decided.

It had asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to constitute a three-member panel of former senior judges to frame uniform procedures for 19 tribunals for deciding appeals against deletions from the electoral rolls.