Supreme Court Gives No Relief To Bengal Voters Deleted In SIR Process

New Delhi: Days before the much-anticipated assembly election in West Bengal kicks off, the Supreme Court has refused to grant interim voting rights to those whose names were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise carried out by the Election Commission.

Voters whose appeals are still pending before the appellate tribunals will also not be allowed to exercise their franchise in these polls.

TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee told the top court that around 16 lakh appeals had been filed and argued that those applicants should be permitted to vote in the upcoming Assembly elections, now only days away.

Responding, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said such a move was “entirely out of the question." 

“If we were to permit this, then the voting rights of the individuals involved would have to be suspended,” the CJI added.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted that the number of appeals linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise stood at 34 lakh, citing a report submitted by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.

The Election Commission of India has already frozen the West Bengal electoral roll, meaning no fresh names can be added before polling unless the Supreme Court of India issues specific directions, which it did not do in this case.

To handle disputes, 19 appellate tribunals have been set up in districts along the Bangladesh border to examine around 27 lakh cases linked to deletions under the verification process.

The court’s observations came while hearing a plea by a group of 13 individuals challenging the removal of their names from the voter list. The Supreme Court of India termed the petition “premature” and directed the petitioners to first approach the designated appellate tribunals for relief.

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