SC orders deployment of district court judges to oversee Bengal SIR

There is an unfortunate blame game... which depicts the case of trust deficit between... the state government and the ECI.

- Utkarsh Anand and Abraham Thomas

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the deployment of serving and retired district court judges in West Bengal to adjudicate disputed voter claims in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll, in an unprecedented exercise of its constitutional powers, and stepping into what it described as an “unfortunate blame game” between the Trinamool Congress-led state government and the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Calling the situation “extraordinary”, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said that it was left with “hardly any choice” other than requesting the chief justice of the Calcutta high court to spare serving as well as retired judicial officers in the rank of additional district judge and district judge to revisit and dispose of claims falling under the “logical discrepancy” category.

“These directions are issued in the extraordinary situation invoking our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India,” clarified the bench, underscoring that the order was not to be treated as precedent.

At the heart of the controversy lies the adjudication of claims and objections filed by voters whose names were flagged under “logical discrepancies” - a category covering nearly 13.6 million electors. Under the SIR exercise, “logical discrepancies” are categorised into seven types, including cases of voters mapped to more than six progeny; age gaps under 15 years with parents; individuals aged over 45 missing from the 2002 rolls; mismatches in fathers’ names between the 2002 and 2005 lists; age gaps under 40 years with grandparents; age gaps over 50 years with parents; and gender mismatches with the 2002 list.