The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to furnish detailed information on appeals pending before tribunals against the inclusion or exclusion of voters from West Bengal’s electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

 

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was hearing petitions seeking measures to speed up the disposal of such appeals.

 

The Court asked the ECI to provide a detailed break-up of the number of appeals currently pending before the appellate tribunals; the number of appeals disposed of so far and the relief sought in those matters; the number of appeals relating to voters whose names were excluded, as well as challenges to the inclusion of voters; the number of appeals allowed and the steps taken to incorporate the consequential changes into the electoral rolls; and measures being considered to make the appellate process more efficient.

 
 

The Bench also made it clear that the SIR exercise and all resulting appeals should be completed well before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.

 

“Kindly also propose the suggestions and changes you have made so as to streamline the manner of disposal by the appellate tribunals,” CJI Kant told the ECI’s counsel.

 

The directions followed submissions from the petitioners that appeals by voters whose names had been deleted should receive priority over challenges filed by those seeking the removal of other voters.

 

The petitioners also sought publication of a supplementary electoral roll incorporating the names of voters who had succeeded in challenging their exclusion.

 

Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee pointed out that several elections were approaching and argued that delays could prevent voters from exercising their franchise.

 

“Municipal elections are coming. They will not be able to cast their votes (if their names are not added to the voter list on time). Then Panchayat elections are coming next year. Then the Lok Sabha elections in 2029. These are persons whose names have been deleted,” Banerjee submitted.

 

CJI Kant agreed with the concern, stating, “We are with you on this point that before the election, at least before the parliamentary election comes, much before that, everything should be decided.”

 

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, submitted that most of the appeals before the tribunals were not actually filed by voters whose names had been deleted.

 

According to him, of approximately 38 lakh appeals, only around seven lakh were filed by persons removed from the electoral rolls, while the remaining 31 lakh involved objections to the inclusion of voters.

 

“This lion’s share of people who want to have people disenfranchised cannot burden the appellate tribunals, definitely not in priority,” he argued, urging the tribunals to first deal with cases involving excluded voters.

 

Sankaranarayanan further submitted that nearly 95 per cent of such cases ultimately resulted in directions for inclusion, making timely adjudication important ahead of the forthcoming elections.

 

The hearing also saw the petitioners raise concerns about the possible electoral consequences of deletions carried out during the SIR exercise. Banerjee referred to constituencies where the margins of victory in the recently concluded Assembly elections were significantly lower than the number of voters whose names had been deleted.

 

“In one constituency, I lost by 365 votes and the deletions are 7,800. In another, the margin is 469. One person lost by 18,000 votes and the deletions are 27,000. In the entire Murshidabad district, lakhs and lakhs of names have been deleted. I am not on anything else, but I am telling Your Lordships that this is targeting one community,” he submitted.

 

The Bench said the ECI’s data would help it assess the nature of the pending appeals and determine how electoral rolls would be updated after their disposal.

 

Senior advocate D S Naidu, appearing for the ECI, told the Court that the Commission was consulting the appellate tribunals on ways to accelerate the process.

 

“We are meeting again because they (tribunals) have suggested some tweaking to expedite the process. There are some issues regarding the architecture of the portal. We are meeting by Monday and will place it before Your Lordships next week,” Naidu said.