Bengal voter list: SC permits more judges for verifying objections

The Supreme Court let Calcutta HC deploy more civil judges and seek aid from Jharkhand and Odisha to verify 50 lakh+ voter roll objections in West Bengal. The move addresses a judicial manpower shortage ahead of assembly elections.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to deploy additional civil judges with three years of experience and, if required, seek assistance from the Chief Justices of Jharkhand and Odisha to ensure sufficient judicial manpower for verifying objections under the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter rolls in West Bengal.

The directions were issued by a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant after the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court flagged a shortage of officers to verify over 50 lakh objections under the 'Logical Discrepancy' category within the existing timeframe. The High Court had noted that even 250 judicial officers would require approximately 80 days to complete the verification.

SC Details Manpower Expansion and Costs

The Supreme Court clarified that, in addition to officers already assigned, the Calcutta High Court could deploy civil judges with three years of experience, and if further resources were required, the Chief Justice of Calcutta HC could request serving or retired judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha. The expenses, including travel, boarding, and honorarium, would be borne by the Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court stated.

"If the CJ of Calcutta HC is of the opinion that further human resources would be required, he is at liberty to approach the Chief Justices of Orissa and Jharkhand High Courts for serving and former judicial officers from those states, who shall then could undertake the pending exercise. In that eventuality the travel, boarding, honorarium and other expenses will be borne by the ECI. The Chief Justices of Orissa and Jharkhand are requested to consider any request by the Calcutta CJ," the apex court noted.

The expansion of judicial manpower aims to ensure the timely and thorough verification of voter roll objections in West Bengal ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

Previous Supreme Court Directive

This comes days after the apex court on Friday ordered the deputation of district judges in West Bengal to resolve pending voter claims of people categorised in the Commission's "logical discrepancy" list in the SIR of electoral rolls in the state.

Invoking powers under Article 142 (special power to do complete justice) of the Constitution, the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi observed that it had no option left but to request the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to intervene on the issue by deputing district judges to resolve pending voter claims, chiefly with respect to the ones who have been included in the logical discrepancy list by the ECI.

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