SC orders judicial officers to act as electoral roll officers in the Mamata Banerjee vs ECI case
The Supreme Court today ordered acting and former additional district judges of West Bengal to be appointed as judicial officers. They must act as the electoral roll officers. They must decide claims and objections and oversee all important and neglected matters in the ongoing special intensive revision of the voters’ list in West Bengal.
The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipin Pancholi said that there is an unfortunate blame game happening between the West Bengal Government and the Election Commission of India. This has gradually resulted in trust issues between the West Bengal Government and the ECI.
“There is an unfortunate blame game of allegations and counter-allegations which shows trust deficit between two constitutional functionaries – that is the State government and the Election Commission of India. Now the process is stuck at the stage of claims and objections of the persons who have been included in the logical discrepancy list. Most of the persons to whom notices were issued have submitted their documents in support of their claim for inclusion in the voter list. These claims are required to be adjudicated in a quasi-judicial process by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs),” the court said.
In this process, the Collectors and Superintendent of the Police must assist and provide logistical support to the judicial officers in every field required in order to smoothly complete the final S.I.R. process without any further delay, said the SC.
The court also ordered the ECI that the SIR final list will be released on 28 February as scheduled without any further delay, and supplementary lists will be published in the following week.
Moreover, the SC tasked the Director General of Police, or the D.G.P. of Kolkata, to file an affidavit in order to find out the steps taken against the complaints of many SIR officers who are allegedly being threatened.
SC further said, “Please cooperate with the High Court. Please create an environment for them to function. Imagine what will happen if the SIR process is not completed. Then what happens?”
The SC urged the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice, the Registrar General, principal district judges, along with a committee of judges, that for a week they can shift interim relief cases to an alternate court.
