The Supreme Court declined to advance the West Bengal SIR matter despite a request for hearing before the October 6 Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls. The case remains listed for October 5.
The Election Commission of India has told the Supreme Court that it is wrong to claim that deletions made during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls cost the Trinamool Congress 31 West Bengal Assembly seats, arguing that the figures relied upon improperly club adjudicated deletions with removals of absentee, shifted, dead and duplicate voters. […]
In a fresh affidavit in the West Bengal SIR matter, the Election Commission has given the Supreme Court the break-up it had sought: of 38,31,429 appeals before the Appellate Tribunals, 22,21,118 were filed by voters whose names were deleted, and 16,10,311 challenge the inclusion of names. The Commission has proposed increasing the number of Tribunals to match the State’s parliamentary constituencies, and contested the claim that the appeals process altered any electoral outcome.
The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court, in an affidavit filed in the West Bengal SIR matter, that of more than 38 lakh appeals filed before the Appellate Tribunals against the revised electoral rolls, only about 1.02 lakh, under 3%, have been disposed of, with over 37 lakh pending. The Commission has not given the break-up of appeals against exclusions versus inclusions that the Court had sought.
Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi has launched a sweeping critique of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, calling the large-scale deletion of voters “a scam,” questioning the legal basis of the exercise, and suggesting that officials who wrongly removed genuine voters could face criminal liability. The Election Commission maintains the revision is a […]
The Supreme Court strongly criticised applications questioning the integrity of judicial officers involved in West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. CJI Surya Kant said the Court “will not tolerate” attempts to cast doubt on judicial officers handling the voter verification exercise.
Today, On 9th March, The Supreme Court agreed to consider a plea challenging the deletion of electors from the electoral rolls during West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR). A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of submissions by senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy.
