Bengal SIR case: No early hearing, ‘only by-elections’ ahead, says Supreme Court

At a SIR hearing in West Bengal’s Murshidabad. (Express File Photo)

The Supreme Court Monday declined to advance the hearing of a plea regarding appeals against the exclusion of names from the West Bengal electoral rolls, pending before the tribunals constituted by it.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge bench, told the petitioner’s counsel who cited urgency in view of the upcoming bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies on October 6 that “these are only by-elections”.

The counsel told the bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, that though the case was listed for hearing on September 29, the causelist was now showing it as listed for hearing on October 5.

He contended that the excluded voters in these constituencies had already lost their chance to vote in one election and that they would not be able to vote in the October 6 polls as well if their appeals were not decided urgently.

“We are seeking urgent directions so that it can be listed before that. There are more than 18,000 appeals pending which have not been disposed of. These people did not take part in the first elections,” he said.

The CJI said, “These are only by-elections, that’s all.”

In an affidavit filed before the top court on September 16, the Election Commission of India said that only 1,26,194 appeals out of a total 38,31,429 appeals had been decided so far while 37,05,235 were pending.

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Of the 38,31,429 appeals, 22,21,118 were by voters whose names were excluded/deleted while 16,10,311 were against inclusion of names. The ECI proposed increasing the number of tribunals to facilitate expeditious disposal of the appeals.

According to this, 6443 appeals were filed by Nandigram voters and so far 89 had been restored in the list. In Rejinagar, out of 12,452 appeals submitted, four have so far been restored in the rolls.

The affidavit was filed in response to an application by TMC MP Derek O’Brien who urged the court to set aside the results in 31 Assembly constituencies, saying that the number of appeals challenging deletions, which remain to be adjudicated, is more than the margin of defeat suffered by TMC candidates.

In its reply, the ECI said the deletions included “Absentee, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASDD)” voters as well and that O’Brien had “conflated all categories of deletions”.