Supreme Court allows tribunals to hear West Bengal SIR appeals

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the “valuable” right to vote cannot be “washed out” in a manner that creates an “oppressive” situation for citizens as it allowed tribunals set up in West Bengal to hear appeals of voters in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise to even examine fresh documents after verification. Supreme Court allows tribunals to hear West Bengal SIR appeals (ANI PHOTO) (HT_PRINT)The order was passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on being informed that 19 tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and judges have been set up to provide a second round of appeal to votes classified under “logical discrepancy” by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Earlier, their objections were dealt with by judicial officers in the first round. Out of a total of six million objections, as on date, 4.7 million cases have been decided by about 500 judicial officers from West Bengal along with over 200 judicial officers drawn from Jharkhand and Odisha. The electoral rolls published on February 28 had already excised over 6.3 million names. The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, said, “If the exclusion (from the electoral roll) is found unwarranted, we see no reason why the decision should not be altered by the tribunal and also if a person is incorrectly included, we see no reason why the entire cleansing exercise should not be gone into.” Read More | 35–40% of 3.2 million names adjudicated not in West Bengal SIR list It directed ECI to provide tribunal members access to all records along with reasons for exclusion or inclusion of names in the roll. The bench was conscious of the fact that only the names cleared by the tribunal till the final date for filing nominations (as decided for the two-phase assembly polls) will be eligible to vote. However, there was a larger concern the court shared. The tribunal was allowed to devise its own procedure and was permitted to even entertain fresh documents (not filed during the first round of adjudication). However, the bench clarified, “We request the tribunal not to entertain fresh documents without verifying their genuineness.” Senior advocate Dama Sesadari Naidu appearing for ECI objected to this order, saying, “Entertaining fresh documents will open a Pandora’s Box. They were already provided an opportunity to file documents and they have chosen not to file.” However, the court left it to the discretion of the tribunal members. Naidu requested the court to consider having a timeframe for tribunals to pass orders. The court said, “We are looking at two independent aspects - the list on which elections are to be conducted and another is the right to vote…If the appellate tribunal decides by the last date, those names may be included in the roll. But those beyond the last date, their valuable right to vote cannot be washed out. This cannot lead to an oppressive situation.” Read More | In Bengal, names of many candidates also in EC’s ‘under adjudication’ list A report presented to the court by Calcutta high court chief justice informed that the seat of the 19 tribunals will be at Kolkata inside the SP Mookerjee National Institute of Water and Sanitation run by the Union jal shakti ministry, for which permission has been obtained. ECI informed the court that training is being imparted to the tribunal members to familiarise them with the software and they can begin functioning from Thursday. The West Bengal government said that the degree of exclusion by ECI was 45% which is very high and following adjudication, nearly 1.9 million (almost 55%) have been re-enfranchised. On concerns over “bundles” of forms by new voters (Form 6) being registered by ECI for inclusion in the electoral roll, the court said, “It is not unusual. It happens in every state but it cannot be done in a hidden manner.” The court posted the matter for further hearing on April 6.