West Bengal Police registered several complaints against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in South 24 Parganas district on Friday. Complaints have been lodged over alleged harassment of people during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) in the Trinamool Congress (TMC)-ruled state, which will go to the polls within months.
The SIR standoff continued even after the Supreme Court on Friday decided to dispatch judicial officials West Bengal to adjudicate claims of voters falling under the category of “logical inconsistency” in the ongoing process.
Canning Borba lawmaker Saukat Mola, who belongs to the Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee’s TMC accompanied seven people who lodged their complaints at Jepantala police station. The complainants alleged that they faced harassment while examining electoral rolls in the state.
“We have received seven complaints against the CEC for alleged harassment during the ongoing SIR and we will examine them,” a police officer said in a report to PTI. The complaints have yet to lead to an FIR.
The SIR was rolled out in Bengal on November 4 last year. The draft electoral register, published on December 16, excluded 5.8 million voters, and a further 11.6 million were flagged under the controversial “logical inconsistency” criterion.
What does TMC say?
according to TMC MLA Saokat Molla, seven people from his constituency have filed complaints against CEC Ganesh Kumar for their alleged harassment during the electoral roll revision process.
“Around 33,000 names have been recommended for deletion in my constituency in the last three days. This move was aimed at disenfranchising genuine voters. Many of these people have documents and have already attended SIR hearings,” the TMC legislator said.
Mullah claimed that nearly 90 percent of these names belong to the Islamic community and accused the Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar “acts as a mediator for the BJP”.
“The CEC is orchestrating a planned conspiracy to diminish minority voters,” he alleged.
Opposition BJP attacks TMC
local However, the BJP leader questioned how the TMC MLA knew about the deletions when such a list was not officially published.
“He should realize that an FIR cannot be lodged against the Election Commission of India chief,” the BJP official said.
The list will be released on February 28
In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court on Friday decided to depute judicial officials in West Bengal to adjudicate claims of voters included under the ‘logical inconsistency’ category in the ongoing SIR exercise, admitting that this was an extraordinary decision in view of the exceptional circumstances.
A three-judge bench led by the Chief Justice of India Surya observed the “lack of trust” and “unfortunate blame game” between the elected state government and the EC and stressed the importance of completing the SIR exercise before the state elections a few months later.
“We are left with no other option but to request the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to spare certain serving judicial officers, along with former judicial officers of impeccable integrity, in the rank of Additional District Judge or District Magistrate, who could then, in each district, be asked to reconsider or dispose of claims under the category of logical inconsistency,” the bench comprising Justices Joymalia Bagchi and Vipul M Panchul said.
“Since the circumstances are unusual, the request to assign authorization to judicial officials or former judicial officials is also of an exceptional nature,” the bench said, noting that it was important to ensure “fairness in adjudicating the authenticity of documents” that would determine the inclusion and exclusion of voters in the state’s electoral roll.
ECI has conducted 660,000 hearings, and the final lists are due to be published on 28 February.
