West Bengal SIR Supreme Court Hearing: Attempts to 'bulldoze' Bengal people, alleges Mamata Banerjee, SC asks EC to exercise caution

Mamata Banerjee questioned ECI's intent behind conducting SIR in West Bengal and questioned why the exercise was not being carried out in Assam. “When people are out they did it. BLOs died by suicide and they blamed the election officials. It is because of the harassment, West Bengal is targeted, why not Assam?! Why not Assam?!!,” she was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench. She later alleged that micro observers were being appointed from BJP-ruled states in an attempt to “bulldoze” the people of Bengal.

People in Bengal were relieved after this court directed that Aadhaar be accepted as one of the documents. She pointed out that in other States, documents such as domicile and caste certificates are accepted, whereas Bengal alone was being singled out.

"I belong to that state . I am very grateful because of your kindness. When justice is crying behind the door... then we thought we are not getting justice anywhere. We wrote 6 letters to the election commission. I am a bonded labour... I prefer that, I am not fighting for my party."

"We have given you examples of actual electors. Please see appendix one... Mr Chirag Tibrewal. His discrepancy was father's name mismatch since father has 'Kumar' as the middle name. I was called with a notice. Then comes Azimuddin Khan... father name shows 'Alauddin Khan' in Bengali... so from Bengali to English... you can loose this."

" Please see this, number of micro observers deputed is 8,300. They are not contemplated under the constitution at all. Number of approved documents rejected... domicile certificates, Aadhaar, OBC certificate.. nothing of these are being accepted. People are in 4 to 5 hours queues."

The court had directed that logical discrepancy list has to be displayed, says Senior Advocate Shyam Divan.

The petition seeks directions from the Election Commission to make public the names of around 1.4 crore voters marked as “disputed,” and to accept Aadhaar as sufficient proof of identity in discrepancy cases.

Mamata Banerjee has penned 26 poems, compiled in a book titled "SIR: 26 in 26," as a protest against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. Released at the International Kolkata Book Fair, the poems express her "spirit of resistance" against what she calls a "relentless campaign of fear" and "ruinous game."

Senior Advocate Shyam Divan will represent West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. He will argue on her behalf in her plea challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.

Heavy security deployed at Supreme Court ahead of crucial SIR hearing.

Mamata Banerjee arrives in Supreme Court, hearing to begin soon.

"It is good because it is not just a matter of West Bengal, but of the entire country. In a planned way, the BJP wants to delete the votes of Dalits, the backwards, minorities and the PDA on a wide scale. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar has provided the right to vote (in the Constitution). There is no right more valuable than this. People of the BJP are harming this in a planned manner. Not just in Bengal, even in UP, votes are being deleted on a large scale..."

The matter will be heard by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi.

During the hearing on January 19, the Supreme Court laid down several directives regarding the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll in West Bengal. The court emphasised that the process must be transparent and should not create difficulties for voters. It instructed the Election Commission to publicly display the names of individuals flagged for "logical discrepancies" at gram panchayat bhavans and block offices.

As per the Supreme Court website, the bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi will hear three petitions filed by Mostari Banu and Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen.