SC notice to poll panel on Mamata's plea against SIR

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a plea filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state and alleging large-scale disenfranchisement of genuine voters.

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A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, sought the poll body's response and posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.

In her plea, Mamata has sought urgent interim directions to restrain the ECI from deleting the name of any voter during the SIR exercise, particularly those placed under the “logical discrepancy” category, while the matter remains under judicial consideration.

Appearing for the West Bengal Chief Minister, senior advocate Shyam Divan contended that the revision exercise is being carried out in undue haste, with only 11 days remaining for the final publication of the electoral rolls, scheduled for Feb.14, while barely four days are left to complete hearings of objections. Divan submitted that around 32 lakh voters are “unmapped” and over 1.36 crore voters have been placed in the logical discrepancy list.

The senior counsel alleged that nearly 70 lakh notices have been issued merely on account of minor spelling mismatches in names, a common occurrence when Bengali names are transliterated into English.