New Delhi: Judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand can be sought by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to handle nearly 80 lakh claims and objections arising from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
The Court also granted permission to the Calcutta HC chief justice to deploy civil judges for the purpose.
The SC bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi took note of a letter from the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice stating that 250 district judges currently assigned to the SIR exercise would need around 80 days to process the claims and objections.
The Court then permitted the deployment of civil judges to speed up the process. It also asked t
he Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to approach his counterparts in Jharkhand and Odisha to requisition judicial officers of equivalent rank, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The Election Commission of India will have to bear the expenses of deploying officers from the two neighbouring states, the Court ordered.
The SC also allowed the poll panel to publish the final electoral roll on February 28, clarifying that supplementary lists may be issued as verification continues.
Voters cleared during the ongoing verification can be included in supplementary rolls, forming part of the February 28 final list, the Court ordered, exercising its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution.
Discrepancies in “progeny linking” with the 2002 voter list, including mismatches in parents’ names and cases where the age gap between a voter and their parent was either less than 15 years or more than 50 years, were noted by the Court.
The bench, on February 20, had expressed concern over the standoff between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission, and issued a direction to deploy serving and former district judges to assist in the controversy-hit SIR exercise.