The Supreme Court request information from the EC regarding SIR appeals that have been decided but are still pending with Bengali appellate bodies

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court requested information from the Election Commission regarding cases that have been decided and those that are still pending before appellate tribunals that were established to hear appeals against West Bengal’s electoral registers being removed during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Congressman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was pleading with a court made up of Chief Justice Surya Kant, justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana to expedite the tribunals’ consideration of SIR-related appeals. “You need to give us the quantum of disposals so far because just filing an appeal is not enough. What is happening to the appeal also has to be seen,” Justice Bagchi said.

The poll panel was instructed by the bench to provide information on cases that have been decided and those that are still pending before the state’s appellate tribunals. The denial of public distribution system (PDS) benefits to individuals whose names were removed during the SIR was another point brought up by Chowdhury’s attorney, who contended that such benefits shouldn’t be withheld until their appeals are resolved.

However, the bench stated that the matter will need to be brought up separately before the Calcutta High Court. “If you enlarge the scope of your petition to PDS, we will not be able to entertain it. It has to go to the high court. But if you are on monitoring of the appellate tribunals, we will consider looking at it. We are of the firm opinion that whether the State of West Bengal uses deletion of the SIR data to deny PDS to individuals is a different cause of action. It has to go before the Calcutta High Court,” Justice Bagchi said.

The judge said the focus of the proceedings was on the number of appeals disposed of by the tribunals and not on the deletion or retention of individual voters’ names.

“You need to rethink the entire architecture of the appellate tribunal. There are things like online access to judges. There are a lot of futuristic things also which can be done. But the main issue is the quantum of disposals. We are not on deletion or non-deletion. We are on the quantum of disposals,” he told the Election Commission.

Senior advocate DS Naidu, appearing for the poll panel, urged the bench to list Chowdhury’s plea along with similar matters on August 25. “To be listed on August 25, tagged with the pending matters,” the bench said while issuing notice to the Election Commission on Chowdhury’s plea.

In order to hear complaints against exclusions from voter lists during the SIR process in West Bengal, the Supreme Court ordered on March 10 that independent appellate tribunals led by former high court judges be established. Additionally, the court permitted the deployment of trial court judges from Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal to handle complaints pertaining to SIR.