The Supreme Court will hear on October 16 a plea seeking to allow voters excluded during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal to cast ballots in the upcoming Kolkata and Howrah municipal elections.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana discussed the pending appeals during Friday’s hearing. The court indicated that appeals seeking the inclusion of voters could be taken up before cases seeking the deletion of names from the electoral rolls.
The application before the court said the Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporation elections are scheduled for late November, with the electoral process expected to be completed by December 7. The two municipal corporations are among the urban bodies where the outcome of the pending appeals could directly affect participation in the civic elections.
According to figures cited from affidavits filed by the Election Commission of India, around 1.7 lakh appeals are pending in Kolkata and Howrah. The pending cases have created uncertainty for voters whose names were excluded from the rolls and who are seeking restoration of their electoral status before the municipal election process advances.
Chief Justice Kant said the court was aware of the difficulties faced by the SIR tribunals and referred to the “multi-faceted problems” involved. He said a large number of pending appeals concerned requests for deletion of voters’ names, while the court was considering whether those cases could be deferred so that appeals seeking inclusion were decided first.
“There are two priorities we are contemplating. One is that appeals filed by persons seeking deletion of voters can be pushed back and taken up at the last stage,” the Chief Justice said, according to the report. The proposed sequencing would allow tribunals to focus first on people seeking to be added back to the electoral rolls.
Justice Bagchi also pointed to software-related problems affecting the process. The court is examining how those technical issues can be addressed as the tribunals process the pending appeals.
Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, told the court that 93 per cent of appeals decided by the SIR tribunals so far had been allowed. They sought directions for the pending appeals to be disposed of quickly so that affected voters could participate in the civic elections.
The lawyers also said the excluded voters were uncertain about whether they would be permitted to vote in the municipal elections because they had not been allowed to vote in recent bypolls. The issue therefore concerns not only the revision of electoral rolls but also the timing of administrative decisions before the election schedule is completed.
The Supreme Court’s next hearing on October 16 is expected to determine how the pending inclusion appeals should be prioritised and whether the process can be completed in time for eligible voters to participate in the Kolkata and Howrah municipal elections.
