West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee personally argued before the Supreme Court, alleging that the SIR of electoral rolls is being misused to target Bengal and harass genuine voters. The top court stressed that “genuine persons must remain on the electoral rolls” and sought responses from the Election Commission.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee created history on Wednesday by becoming the first serving Chief Minister to personally argue a case before the Supreme Court of India.
She appeared before the top court seeking urgent intervention in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out in West Bengal, alleging that the state was being unfairly singled out and that its people were suffering because of the process.
Mamata Banerjee alleged before the court that West Bengal was being deliberately targeted by the Election Commission and that ordinary citizens were being harassed during the revision exercise. She told the court that the people of the state were being “bulldozed” due to the manner in which the SIR process was being conducted.
The Supreme Court took note of the petition filed by the Chief Minister and observed that it was essential to ensure that genuine voters were not removed from the electoral rolls.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi issued notices to the Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, asking them to file their replies by February 9.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice of India directed the Election Commission to advise booth-level officers and electoral roll officers to act with sensitivity while issuing notices to voters. The court specifically referred to minor issues such as spelling mistakes in names and said such discrepancies should not lead to harassment or deletion of genuine voters.
Referring to the Election Commission, Mamata Banerjee called it a “WhatsApp Commission”, an apparent reference to her allegation that directions were being issued to electoral officials through WhatsApp messages instead of through formal written orders.
The Chief Minister arrived at the Supreme Court around 10 am, dressed in her trademark white sari with a black scarf, braving the winter chill of the capital. She was accompanied by her lawyers, including Trinamool Congress leader and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee.
Her presence in the courtroom attracted significant attention, with several lawyers and litigants crowding outside the Chief Justice’s courtroom to witness the rare moment of a sitting Chief Minister making submissions before the apex court.
At the beginning of the hearing, Mamata Banerjee requested permission to speak for five minutes. The Chief Justice responded warmly and told her that she would be given not five but 15 minutes to present her case.
Speaking emotionally before the bench, Banerjee said,
“The problem is our lawyers always fought our case from the beginning but when everything is finished, we are not getting justice… We are not getting justice anywhere. I am a bonded labourer, sir… I am from a common family and I am not fighting for my party,”
She further alleged selective targeting and said, “West Bengal is being targeted,” while questioning why similar standards were not applied in Assam.
ALSO READ: BREAKING: CM Mamata Banerjee Arrives At Supreme Court for West Bengal SIR Case Hearing
Continuing her criticism, the Chief Minister stated,
“They are targeting West Bengal to bulldoze its people,”
after being permitted by the court to supplement the arguments made by her counsel, senior advocate Shyam Divan.
Banerjee told the bench that she had written six letters to the Election Commission raising concerns about the SIR process but had received no reply. At the end of the hearing, she thanked the judges for allowing her to speak personally and urged the court to “save democracy”.
The Chief Minister has challenged the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the state and has requested the court to direct the Election Commission to “accept Aadhaar cards as proof of identity especially in cases of ‘logical discrepancy’ without insisting on any other documents”.
The logical discrepancies cited by election officials include differences in a parent’s name, incorrect age entries, or cases where the age gap between a voter and their parent is less than 15 years or more than 50 years.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan informed the court that a large number of voters remained unmapped and warned that there was very little time left to correct errors, as the SIR process is scheduled to conclude on February 14. He also argued that the Election Commission must upload reasons for placing voters in the “logical discrepancy” category.
Divan further told the court that notices had been issued to nearly 1.36 crore voters after discrepancies were found in their records.
Taking the argument forward, Mamata Banerjee claimed that in some cases, living people had been wrongly declared dead by election authorities. She said,
“Their SIR process is only for deletion, not for inclusion,”
She highlighted the difficulties faced by common citizens during the exercise and said people were relieved when the Supreme Court earlier directed that Aadhaar could be used as one of the documents for verification. However, she alleged that despite the court’s direction, Aadhaar was still not being accepted on the ground and other documents were being demanded.
She pointed out the difference in treatment between states and said,
“In other states, documents like domicile certificate, family register card, etc are allowed… they are only targeting Bengal on the eve of elections. What was the hurry?”
Banerjee also questioned the speed of the process, noting that an exercise which normally takes two years was being completed in just three months, that too during the festival and harvesting season in West Bengal. She raised concerns about the deaths of officials involved in the exercise and the deployment of micro-observers in the state.
Responding on behalf of the Election Commission, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi denied the allegations and claimed that the West Bengal government had provided only 80 Grade-II officers to supervise the SIR process.
Banerjee strongly disputed this claim and said the state had provided everything that was requested by the Election Commission.
At one point, when the counsel for the Election Commission interrupted her, Banerjee folded her hands and said,
“Please allow me to speak, sir!”
She further highlighted that married women were being issued notices merely because they had shifted to their in-laws’ homes or had adopted their husbands’ surnames.
When objections were raised to her submissions, Chief Justice Surya Kant intervened and remarked,
“Madam has come all the way to speak.”
The bench also reiterated during the hearing that
“genuine persons must remain on the electoral roll”.
The Chief Justice observed that all issues could be resolved with cooperation and stressed that it must be ensured that no innocent voter was excluded from the electoral rolls.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan added that many notices were issued due to simple spelling mistakes in names, which could be easily corrected. The Chief Justice referred to the Bengali language and noted that names spoken in Bengali could often be misspelt when written in English, leading to avoidable discrepancies.
Click Here to Read More Reports On Murder
