EC to clear 50% of pending voter cases in Bengal, list in 7 days

KOLKATA: Around 50% of the slightly more than 60 lakh cases marked as ‘Under Adjudication' in the electoral roll are expected to be disposed of within the next seven days, Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal said. He added that a supplementary electoral list is likely to be published within the next six-seven days.

"About 20 lakh cases are expected to be disposed of by Monday. Around 705 judicial officers are adjudicating the cases, and 1.5 to 2 lakh cases are being cleared everyday," he said

On the publication of the supplementary list, Agarwal explained that the process depends on the approval from the Calcutta High Court, as directed by the Supreme Court. "The Chief Justice of the Calcutta HC will provide us with the supplementary list, which will be treated as deemed final and added to the electoral roll published on Feb 28. For this, we need to create a ‘bridge' — a software system linking the judicial portal with ECINET," he said. Agarwal added that the EC had already submitted the proposed software format to the HC.

"Once the HC approves it, we will operationalise the system within three-four days. We expect the supplementary list to be published within seven days. After that, it will become a regular feature — whenever cases are disposed of, the data will automatically be transferred to ECINET, which hosts the electoral roll," he said.

According to the latest SC directive, the orders passed by judicial officers in cases marked as ‘Under Adjudication' will not be subject to appeal before any executive or administrative officer. The apex court, on March 10, ordered that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta HC may request former chief justices and former judges to be notified as the Appellate Tribunal or tribunals to hear such appeals.

According to EC sources, one tribunal will be set up in each district to hear and dispose of appeals. However, there is still no clarity on when these tribunals will be set up.

Sources added that around 40% of the 20 lakh cases disposed of so far failed scrutiny, mostly due to insufficient documentary evidence.

EC officials told political party representatives at an all-party meeting on Monday that, for those whose names are deleted, the reasons for the deletions will not be mentioned on the supplementary list. "If anyone wants to know the reason, they need to file an appeal," a source said.