New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the deployment of serving and retired district court judges in West Bengal to adjudicate disputed claims of voters in the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral register, in an unprecedented exercise of its constitutional powers, engaging in what it described as an “unfortunate blame game” between the Trinamool Congress-led state government and the Election Commission of India (ECI).
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalia Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi termed the situation “extraordinary” and said it had “almost no option” other than asking the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to spare serving judicial officers as well as retired judicial officers of the rank of Additional District Judge and District Judge to reconsider and dispose of the cases falling under the category of “logical inconsistency”.
“These directions have been issued in an exceptional situation based on our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India,” the bench explained, stressing that the matter should not be treated as a precedent.
Read also | SC extraordinary order on Bengal SIR amid ‘unfortunate blame game’: District judges to assist in process
At the heart of this controversy lies the dismissal of claims and objections made by voters whose names were flagged under the category of “logical inconsistencies” — a category covering nearly 13.6 million voters.
Under the SIR exercise, “logical inconsistencies” are classified into seven types, including cases of voters assigned to more than six offspring; Age gaps of less than 15 years with parents; Individuals over 45 years of age were missing from the 2002 lists; The lack of correspondence in the names of fathers between the 2002 and 2005 lists; Age gaps of less than 40 years with grandparents; Age gaps of more than 50 years with parents; And gender non-conformity with the 2002 list.
“The SIR process has not entered the stage of claims and objections which have entered into the segment of logical inconsistencies… There is an unfortunate blame game, allegations and counter-allegations which clearly depict a situation of lack of trust between the two constitutional functionaries, namely the democratically elected state government and the IEC,” the bench said.
The final list of voters in the politically important eastern state is scheduled to be published on February 28. High-stakes council elections are scheduled to follow weeks later. A draft list, published last year, omitted 5.8 million names.
The court noted that most voters in this category provided supporting documents to justify their inclusion on the voter list. These claims must be adjudicated by Electoral Registration Officers (EROS), who perform quasi-judicial functions under the Electoral Act.
However, a dispute arose as to whether the State had provided officers of appropriate ranks, namely Group A officers in the basic ranks of Sub Divisional Officers (SDOs) or Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDMs). During the hearing, the court expressed its disappointment. “We are disappointed to see that the state has not provided the required officers… Isn’t the state obligated to provide EROs?” The court asked.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Menaka Guruswamy, who appeared for West Bengal, asserted that the state does not have enough Group A and B officers. “We don’t have much,” they said.
The court was unimpressed. “Then this is what should have been said in your response to the ECC… These officers are required and bound by law to issue orders that are quasi-judicial in nature. You cannot promote a clerk and then say that this officer will deal with these matters.”
The Council clearly added: “We cannot allow an incompetent person to decide the fate of people in this process.”
In the face of what it described as “hesitation” and “stagnation on both sides,” the court resorted to judicial oversight. “In order to ensure fairness in adjudicating the authenticity of the documents relied upon and the consequent determination of inclusion or exclusion in the voters list…we are left with no option but to request the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to relieve certain serving judicial officers as well as some retired judicial officers,” the court order said.
