Supreme Court Permits Deployment of Judicial Officers from Other States for Bengal Voter Roll Scrutiny
In a significant development aimed at expediting the electoral roll revision process in West Bengal, the Supreme Court of India has granted permission to the Calcutta High Court to deploy additional judicial officers, including those from neighboring states Jharkhand and Odisha. This unprecedented judicial intervention comes as part of efforts to accelerate the scrutiny of voter inclusion claims during West Bengal's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Addressing the Massive Backlog
The Supreme Court bench took serious note of the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice's assessment that despite assigning 294 serving and retired district and additional district judges to examine documents of voters placed under logical discrepancy and unmapped categories, it would still take approximately 80 days to scrutinise about 50 lakh (5 million) cases. This staggering timeline prompted the court to take extraordinary measures to ensure timely completion of the electoral revision process.
The bench accepted this assessment and allowed the engagement of civil judges with three years' experience to assist in the mammoth task. Furthermore, the court directed that all expenses for the requisitioned judicial officers would be borne by the Election Commission of India, according to sources familiar with the proceedings.
Timeline for Voter List Publication
In a crucial decision regarding the publication schedule, the bench allowed the Election Commission to publish the final voter list containing verified names on February 28. The court further clarified that remaining names could be issued through supplementary lists, and using its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, declared that these supplementary lists would be deemed to be part of the final voter list published on that date.
Unprecedented Judicial Intervention
This decision follows last week's unprecedented move where the Supreme Court utilized its "extraordinary powers" to deploy judicial officers in West Bengal to decide claims for inclusion in the voter list and speed up completion of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The court emphasized that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should be fully aware of the consequences if the revision exercise is not concluded within the stipulated timeframe.
The court explained that this unprecedented judicial intervention under Article 142 of the Constitution was necessitated by what it described as an "extraordinary situation" that has arisen in Bengal due to trust deficit and non-cooperation between the Election Commission and the West Bengal government.
Rejecting State Government's Contention
The bench also did not agree with the contention of the state government that electoral registration officers (EROs), rather than judicial officers, should have the final say in deciding claims of inclusion in the voter list. This decision reinforces the Supreme Court's commitment to ensuring an impartial and efficient electoral roll revision process free from potential political interference.
The deployment of judicial officers from other states represents a unique approach to addressing administrative challenges in electoral processes and sets a significant precedent for handling similar situations in other states facing comparable challenges during election preparations.
