West Bengal Targeted To Remove Voters: CM Mamata Banerjee Tells SC In A Historic In-Person Appearance

New Delhi: In a rare and unprecedented development, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday appeared in-person before the Supreme Court of India to argue her case, alleging that the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was being used to "target West Bengal" and remove genuine voters rather than correct errors. Banerjee informed the Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant that the SIR exercise is being carried out only to the exclusion of voters and not their inclusion.

"This SIR is for deletion, not inclusion," she said, alleging that lakhs of voters had been wrongly flagged under “logical discrepancies”. Her petition, argued by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, points to alleged procedural lapses, including non-disclosure of reasons for categorising voters as discrepant and rejection of valid documents on the part of the Election Commission.

Banerjee's counsel informed the court that 58 lakh voters had already been deleted and around 88 lakh voters were flagged, while nearly three lakh objections were still pending, even as the final publication of the rolls was scheduled within 11 days. Highlighting linguistic realities, Banerjee argued that common Bengali surname variations such as Datta and Dutta, Roy and Ray, Ganguly and Ganguli were being treated as mismatches.

As per her submissions, her legal team stated that these are not spelling mistakes. These are local dialect differences which happen across India. "A daughter goes to her in-laws' house after marriage and uses her husband's surname. They (ECI) are removing her. Is that a reason to delete her name?" Banerjee asked.

Questioning the timing of the exercise, she said that the ECI is undertaking SIR during festivals and the harvest season, when many voters are away. "What was the hurry to do this at such a time?" she said, alleging selective targeting of West Bengal along with other opposition (non-BJP ruled) States.
She added,"Why West Bengal, why not Assam?, stressing her argument that the ECI is only selectively targeting non-BJP ruled states.

The Court, however, assuring protection to genuine voters, said, "We will ensure that no innocent citizen is left out," CJI Surya Kant observed. The CJI added that minor spelling or dialectal differences cannot be grounds for exclusion. The Bench clarified that names of deceased or disqualified persons would, however, have to be removed as per law.

"Dead persons or disqualified voters, whatever may be the ground, will have to be deleted," the court said. On the issue of Aadhaar cards, flagged by the Chief Minister on the ground that they were not being accepted despite the court's directions, the court said it could not comment, as the question of Aadhaar's validity as a citizenship document was pending before it and orders had been reserved.

"Aadhaar has its own limitations. We have reserved judgment on that issue," the CJI noted. Appearing for the ECI, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi submitted that notices issued during the SIR already carried reasons for discrepancies. He also said the Commission had not yet received the fresh grievances raised during the hearing.

"These new grievances are not provided to us. We need time to examine them," Dwivedi told the court. Chief Minister Banerjee flagged another issue in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, alleging that the Election Commission of India (ECI) was "not allowing State offices to participate in the exercise". She claimed that instead, the Commission had appointed "micro-observers sitting in BJP-ruled States" and was "using AI to delete voters' names".

Countering the allegations, senior advocate Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, said the Commission was "compelled to appoint micro-observers" due to lack of cooperation from the State government. "We have written several letters to the State government asking them to appoint BLOs and other officers," he told the court.

Dwivedi submitted that the State had provided "only about 80 officers", leaving District Level Officers to manage the process. "I am under pressure," he said, adding that "the fault lies with the State government for not giving us officers". Taking note of all submissions, the Supreme Court issued notice to the ECI seekinga response to Banerjee's plea and said the matter would be taken up again on Monday, granting time to the Commission to examine the new grievances highlighted by the petitioners.

The Court was hearing a batch of petitioners, including the West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee and AITC MP Derek O Brien, who filed pleas challenging the Election Commission's SIR of voter rolls in West Bengal. Earlier, owing to allegations of procedural irregularities by petitioners, the apex court had issued a slew of directions to the ECI, pertinently to publish names of persons categorised in the "logical discrepancy" list, which could lead to exclusion from the voter list. Today, Banerjee herself appeared in Court and made submissions on her behalf. 

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