New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear a plea filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the ongoing Special intensive revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in the State.
Banerjee may attend the apex court on Wednesday during a crucial hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the SIR of voter rolls in the state.
According to the apex court’s website, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi is to hear the petitions, including those filed by Banerjee, Mostari Banu and TMC MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen.
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Sources say that the Chief Minister, who holds an LLB degree, may attend the court and present her contentions.
On January 19, the apex court issued a series of directions and observed that the SIR process in West Bengal should be transparent and should not cause inconvenience.
He directed the Election Commission (EC) to post the names of those on the “logical irregularities” list at gram panchayat bhavans and block offices where documents and objections will also be submitted.
Logical discrepancies in linking offspring with the 2002 electoral roll include cases of parent name mismatch and age difference between the voter and his parent being less than 15 years or more than 50 years.
Noting that 1.25 crore voters in the state figure in the list of “logical irregularities”, the CJI-led bench ordered that the offices for submission of documents and objections be set up within the panchayat bhavans or block offices and asked the West Bengal government to provide adequate manpower to the electoral authorities.
Banerjee filed her petition on January 28. She made the EC and the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal parties in the case.
Banerjee had earlier written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) urging him to stop the “arbitrary and flawed” SIR in the poll-bound state.
Stepping up her attack on the EC, Banerjee warned that continuation of the SIR in its current form could lead to “mass disenfranchisement” and an “attack on the foundations of democracy”.
In a strongly worded letter dated January 3, CEC Gyanesh Kumar accused the EC of presiding over an “unplanned, ill-prepared and ad hoc” process that was marked by “gross irregularities, procedural violations and administrative malpractices”.
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Earlier, O’Brien filed a petition alleging arbitrariness and procedural irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls in the state.
The application alleged that since the start of the SIR process in the EC state, it has been issuing instructions to country-level officers through “informal and extra-statutory channels” such as WhatsApp messages and verbal instructions given during video conferences, instead of issuing formal written instructions.
“The ECI cannot act arbitrarily, arbitrarily or violate the law, nor can it substitute ad hoc or informal mechanisms for the legally prescribed and established procedures,” it said.
O’Brien made the request in his pending petition challenging the order and directions issued by the panel for the conduct of SIRs in various states, including West Bengal.
The application said it was informed that during the SIR in West Bengal, the Election Panel created and deployed a new category described as “logical irregularities” without any written order or instructions to “issue/decide to issue notices to 1.36 lakh voters without any legal basis”.
It also sought a jury instruction to release the final list only after all claims, objections and hearings have been disposed of.