SC directs inclusion of supplementary electoral roll in West Bengal’s Feb 28 final voter list

Supreme Court

• Supreme Court: Include eligible voters in supplementary lists
• Calcutta HC may use Jharkhand, Odisha judges for voter claims
• EC to cover expenses for deploying additional judicial officers

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday exercised its plenary powers to direct that eligible voters included in the supplementary electoral roll be incorporated into the final voters’ list scheduled to be published on February 28 for West Bengal.

However, supplementary lists would be published on a continuous basis till nomination, stated tge court.

The top court invoked its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to declare that voters included in the supplementary lists would deemed to have been part of the final electoral roll published on February 28.

Deploying officials

The court also permitted the Calcutta High Court chief justice to deploy civil judges and also requisition judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha to deal with 80 lakh claims and objections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi took note of a letter by the Calcutta High Court chief justice that said 250 district judges deployed in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise will take around 80 days to deal with the claims and objections.

Taking note of the grim situation and the time constraints, the bench permitted the deployment of civil judges to conduct the process.

It asked the Calcutta High Court chief justice to request his Jharkhand and Odisha counterparts and requisition judicial officers of similar ranks to deal with the situation.

It directed the EC to bear the expenses for deploying judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha.

The logical discrepancies in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list include instances of a mismatch in the parent's name and the age difference between a voter and his/her parent being less than 15 years or more than 50 years.

On February 20, dismayed over the ongoing tussle between the West Bengal government and the EC, the top court issued an "extraordinary" direction to deploy serving and former district judges to assist the poll panel in the controversy-ridden SIR exercise in the state.

Ruing the "unfortunate blame game" and the "trust deficit" between the EC and the "democratically elected" Trinamool Congress government in Bengal, the bench passed a slew of fresh directions to ensure the completion of the SIR exercise.