NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the “precious” right to vote cannot be “washed” in a way that creates an “oppressive” situation for citizens as it allowed courts set up in West Bengal to hear voters’ appeals in the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) process even to examine new documents after verification.
The order was approved by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant after it was informed that 19 benches headed by former chief justices and judges of the Supreme Court had been constituted to file a second round of appeal for votes classified under “logical inconsistency” by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Earlier, their objections were dealt with by judicial officers in the first round. Of the total six million objections, so far, 4.7 million cases have been decided by around 500 judicial officers from West Bengal besides over 200 judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha. The electoral lists published on February 28 had already deleted more than 6.3 million names.
What did the bench say?
“If the exclusion (from the electoral roll) is found to be unjustified, we see no reason why the court should not change the decision, and also if a person has been incorrectly included, we see no reason why the entire purge process should not take place,” the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalia Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, said.
Read more | 35-40% of the 3.2 million names are yet to be adjudicated in the West Bengal SIR
The European Export Credit Commission was directed to provide members of the Tribunal with access to all records as well as the reasons for exclusion or inclusion of names in the list. The bench was cognizant of the fact that only names approved by the court up to the deadline for filing nominations (as decided in the two-phase Assembly elections) are eligible to vote. However, there was a larger concern shared by the court.
The court was allowed to establish its own procedures, and was also allowed to receive new documents (which had not been submitted during the first round of adjudication). However, the bench clarified: “We ask the court not to accept new documents without verifying their authenticity.”
Senior human rights advocate Dhamma Sisadari Naidu, who appeared for ECI, objected to this, saying: “Getting fresh documents will open a Pandora’s box. They have already had an opportunity to submit documents and have chosen not to submit them.”
What did the court say?
However, the court left the matter to the discretion of the court members. Naidu asked the court to consider setting a time frame for the courts to issue orders.
“We are looking at two independent aspects – the list on which the elections will be held, and the other is the right to vote… If the Court of Appeal decides by the last date, these names may be included in the list. But those who are beyond the last date, their precious right to vote cannot be washed away. This cannot lead to an oppressive situation,” the court said.
Read more | In Bengal, the names of several candidates have also been included in the EC’s ‘under adjudication’ list
A report submitted to the court by the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court said that the headquarters of the 19 courts will be located in Kolkata within the SP Mookerjee National Institute of Water and Sanitation run by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, for which permission has been obtained. ECI informed the court that training is being provided to the court members to familiarize them with the program and they can start working from Thursday.
The West Bengal government said that the degree of exclusion by ECI was 45% which was very high and after the judicial adjudication, the right to vote was restored to nearly 1.9 million (about 55%).
Regarding concerns about “packages” of forms submitted by new voters (Form 6) being registered by the IEC for inclusion in the electoral roll, the court said: “It is not unusual. This happens in every state but it cannot be done in a hidden manner.”
The court postponed the case to next April 6.
