Bengal SIR: Will not allow any impediment, says SC; extends deadline by a week, issues showcause notice to DGP

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Suryakant on Monday stated that it will not allow any impediment in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He made the remarks during the hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the SIR exercise in West Bengal.

“Whatever orders or clarification are required, we will issue. But we will not allow any impediment in SIR. This must be understood by all states,” the CJI remarked as both sides argued.

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Noting that the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had already written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) seeking additional time to complete the hearing process, the top court extended the deadline for publication of the final electoral roll in West Bengal by one week.

Reiterating its January 19 directions, the apex court also issued additional directions. “Let the state government ensure all the 8505 officers whose list has been handed over in the court, report to duty to the district electoral officials/BROs at tomorrow by 5 PM.”

“The ECI shall have the discretion to replace the existing BRO/AEROs and use the services of officials who have now been placed on deputation with the ECI. Rest of the 8 officers/officials from the list of 8505, the ECI, after deep scrutinization of their bio data and work experience may shortlist these officials equivalent to strength of micro-observers already engaged. These state government officials may be imparted brief training for the purpose of providing assistance to the ERO/AEROs along with microobservers who have already been engaged.”

Showcause notice issued to the Bengal DGP

After ECI complained of vandalism, the Supreme Court issued showcause notice to the West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP). The court noted that it had directed the West Bengal police to maintain law and order and aid the ECI during the SIR exercise in its January 19 order.

The Bengal DGP was asked to give a personal affidavit explaining his conduct and why action was not taken on the Election Commission complaint of vandalism.

Earlier, the hearing began with the top court pulling up the lawyers of both sides for ‘not maintaining discipline’, and asked them to argue ‘one by one’. “If you people do not maintain discipline, then you know the nature of the chief justice. I will adjourn all the matters,” the court said.

Advocate Shyam Diwan, who appeared for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, told the court that the state government has compiled the names of 8505 officers and sent the particulars to the ECI.

When the court pointed out that the state had given only the numbers and not the names, Diwan said that the names are compiled, district-wise and designation-wise, as your lordships have indicated.

When the court pointed out how does it matter if the micro observers are officials from other states, Diwan said, “These micro observers don’t know anything about the local culture and other aspects.”

The ECI, however, said that it has written five letters saying EROs are a quasi-judicial authority and that we need SDM, etc., but they gave only 64 like that, who can adjudicate and decide. The rest they gave on the basis of pay parity. Like engineers, etc.

“They are in no way conducted adjudicatory processes. They say officers worked in elections. But in SIR, they have to pass decisions that will be challenged in appellate forums. We need to know what work these 8,500 officers were doing,” the lawyer representing the poll panel said.

The petitioners, who also include West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, are seeking that the upcoming assembly elections in the state be held on the basis of the 2025 electoral rolls, citing the ground that there are several irregularities in the process, which may lead to mass disenfranchisement.

CM Banerjee, who had herself appeared in the court during the last hearing, has also flagged issues with the ‘logical discrepancy’ list published by the Eci. She claimed that people were served notices over minor name-spelling errors.

The Bengal CM had also raised objections to the ECI’s appointment of “micro-observers” for the SIR process. She alleged that the ‘micro-observers’ have been appointed from BJP-ruled states to deliberately keep certain voters out of the voter list.

The poll panel, however, argued that it had to appoint micro-observers since the State government did not cooperate with the process and spared its officers for the SIR work.