27L Bangladeshi voters on suspicious list denied request, unable to vote

NEW DELHI: In a particularly intensive revision exercise, nearly 2.7 million people seeking inclusion in West Bengal’s electoral roll were put in the “suspicious” category and nearly 2.7 million of them may not be able to vote in the ensuing assembly polls, with judicial officials overseeing the ruling dismissing their demands. The first phase of Bengal’s assembly polls, scheduled to be held on April 23, was scheduled to freeze the electoral rolls before midnight on Monday. Taking note of the final deletion by the Calcutta High Court, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas of the Bengal government and TMC supporters seeking inclusion of the names of those appealing against deletion by judicial officers pending in 19 special appeals tribunals headed by retired high court chief justices and judges. “These claims have been examined by the judicial officers carrying out the task of the Electoral Registration Officer. We have allowed the supplementary list to be furnished beyond the publication of the final voters’ list (February 28), thereby incorporating the names of those cleared by the judicial officers. This cannot be extended to the outcome of an appeal against the rejection of the results before the Court of Appeal,” the SC said.

If the courts are asked to decide lakhs of appeals before April 15, it will not only become a heavy burden on the courts but also create chaos,” said CJI Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi.In addition to the 6 million people listed as “suspicious,” another 6.17 million people’s names were removed from the list during the SIR because they were found to have died, moved, were registered in two locations, or could not be traced.The number of voters deleted after the ruling was approximately 8.88 million, accounting for 11.6% of the voters at the beginning of the SIR. Under Section 23(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the electoral list for the second phase will be frozen on April 9, the last day of nominations.The judge said that the more than 700 judicial officers deployed for the Bangladesh SIR had performed miracles by completing the adjudication of more than 6 million claim cases.Advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Bengal government and TMC supporters, said appeals of as many as 7 lakh people have been filed and more will be filed and recommended a decision on these appeals by April 15 for inclusion in the final list.The bench said that in view of the trust deficit between the state and the EC, it has exercised its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to deploy judicial officers to examine claims and objections.Advocate Kapil Sibal said the appeal tribunal could at least be empowered to give interim directions on prima facie satisfaction to include those voters who had cast their votes before in the final list.The SC said that since the bench consists of experienced former judges and former chief justices, it would be prudent for the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to constitute a committee to decide on the appellate adjudication procedure to be adopted uniformly across the 19 benches.The EC informed the SC through senior counsel DS Naidu that the infrastructure of the court has been provided and the court can start full operations.