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Supreme Court on Bengal SIR: Form tribunals to hear appeals over exclusion of names
The Supreme Court Tuesday directed formation of tribunals comprising former High Court judges to hear appeals against exclusion of names from the West Bengal voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) carried out in the state. The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and R Mahadevan also warned […]
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee at the site of a dharna against the SIR in Kolkata. She called off the dharna after the SC order. (Express Photo)
The Supreme Court Tuesday directed formation of tribunals comprising former High Court judges to hear appeals against exclusion of names from the West Bengal voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) carried out in the state.
The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and
R Mahadevan also warned against attempts to question the work of judicial officers deputed to verify names flagged for logistical discrepancies.
“As Chief Justice of India, it is my duty to protect the judiciary. I will not allow anybody and I know what has happened… I will not share in the open court what has happened. I am issuing a stern warning. This side and this side both… Will not tolerate,” the CJI said.
The bench asked the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to request some former HC Chief Justices and two or three former judges, preferably from the Calcutta High Court or neighbouring states, to serve on the appellate tribunals.
It said once their names have been recommended by the CJ, the Election Commission will notify them as Appellate Tribunals to hear the appeals. The High Court CJ, it said, will decide the number of members on each tribunal.
The direction to set up appellate tribunals came after Senior Advocate Kalyan Banerjee told the bench that the Chief Electoral Officer “has passed an order directing… that all appeals that arise on the ground of rejection should be marked to the CEO, who will hear the appeal.”
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The CJI then said, “We can ask the HC to entertain the appeals.”
Senior Advocate D S Naidu, appearing for the Election Commission of India (ECI), denied that the CEO had issued any such order. “There is a lot of misinformation. Without notice to us, it is being alleged the CEO has issued some direction. No such direction is issued,” he said.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for some petitioners, said there will be lakhs of appeals and asking the HC to decide all of them will put a huge burden on the judges. He said some alternative arrangement would be better.
The CJI said, “We can ask the CJ to appoint former judges.”
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Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy, also appearing for some petitioners, said the judicial officers had adjudicated about 8 lakh claims so far.
The CJI said the Calcutta High Court CJ had informed Tuesday morning that more than 10 lakh had been done and that more officers from other states had joined.
He took strong exception to one of the petitions questioning the judicial officers. “There is a writ petition which questions the judicial officers… Now you people don’t have faith in the system.”
Both Guruswamy and Banerjee said they were not aware of any such petition. “Not acceptable… We have not filed any such petition, don’t know who has filed… Many petitions have been filed. Some of these are private petitioners. We don’t know who those petitioners are,” Guruswamy said.
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She said the judicial officers now have about 50 lakh cases to process, of which 48 lakh are mapped. “They were on the 2002 SIR rolls. They have voted in consecutive elections including the last Parliamentary elections,” she said.
At this, the CJI said, “That is why the SIR.”
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