'Except West Bengal': SC notes 'hardly any litigation' over SIR in other states

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would consider extending the date for freezing the electoral rolls in West Bengal, even as it noted that the Election Commission’s SIR exercise had been largely smooth in other states.

The observation came during the hearing of a batch of pleas alleging procedural irregularities in the ECI’s SIR exercise in West Bengal, where polling for the 294-member Assembly is scheduled for April 23 and 29, with counting on May 4.




During the hearing, senior advocate and AITC leader Maneka Guruswamy requested the court to consider extending the date of freezing of electoral rolls in West Bengal so that names of persons objecting to their exclusion from the list can be adjudicated and added.

The court, in response, clarified that it would consider the request. “We will consider if so required. Right now things are going well”, the court said.

At the same time, the bench pointed out that the SIR exercise had not led to similar levels of litigation in most other States.

“Except West Bengal, whichever states where SIR is done, everywhere it went smoothly. Even in other states, there are complications, if not equally, but there are complications. But by and large, hardly any litigation came from other States”, the CJI said.

The apex court had earlier issued directions considering the peculiarity of the situation in West Bengal.

Around 60 lakh names were marked as “under adjudication” in the post-SIR electoral rolls published on February 28.

According to the Election Commission, the supplementary list contains the names of around 29 lakh voters whose cases have been adjudicated by judicial officers.
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