Supreme Court declines plea on voter deletions, directs petitioners to tribunals

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by several individuals whose names were deleted from the voter list during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. The petitioners included around 65 election duty officers.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi directed the petitioners to approach the appellate tribunals set up on the SC's order to hear challenges relating to such deletions. Counsel for the petitioners contended that many officers had found their names arbitrarily removed from the voter list without any reason. "These are 65 petitioners who are on election duty. Their duty orders mention EPIC numbers. Now those numbers are deleted. Now the individuals conducting elections cannot vote! This is, on the face of it, arbitrary," the counsel argued. The argument, however, did not cut ice with the bench which asked the petitioners to approach the appellate tribunal.



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Justice Bagchi said that the petitioners can still press their appeals so that their names can eventually be restored to the electoral roll.

In a related development, the SC was informed that tribunals have decided only a miniscule number of voter cases. "Only 136 appeals have been disposed of out of 27 lakh filed. This is very, very unfortunate," counsel appearing for the state of West Bengal submitted. In response, CJI Kant observed that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta HC may be approached on this issue.

"We understand that some issues will be arising requiring the attention of the Chief Justice of the High Court. We grant liberty to approach the Chief Justice. For those whose names were excluded during SIR and who have filed appeals, we have already directed tribunals to grant out-of-turn hearings, keeping in mind the urgency," the bench stated.

The SC also granted the NIA additional time to file a charge sheet in connection with a recent incident of 'gherao' of judicial officers deployed for adjudicating voter claims.


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In another related development, the apex court welcomed the record voter turnout on Thursday during the first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections. "As a citizen of India, I was very happy to see the voting percentage. When people exercise their right to vote, it strengthens the democratic setup," CJI Kant observed.