Jharkhand, Odisha judicial officers to be drafted to speed up Bengal SIR

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the Calcutta HC chief justice to requisition judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha to help such officers in West Bengal in expeditiously scrutinising and determining validity of claims of voters falling under 'logical discrepancy' or 'unmapped' categories of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll process.

These voters in WB have been put under the categories because of, what Election Commission (EC) considers, illogical inconsistencies in their details, documents and family tree.




The order came from a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi after the Calcutta HC CJ informed that though 294 serving and retired district judges and additional district judges have been assigned SIR work, they would take at least 80 days to scrutinise documents of 50 lakh voters in these two categories even if each judicial officer decided 250 cases a day.

The bench allowed the Calcutta HC CJ to draft judicial officers in the state with three years' experience for SIR work and said if more additional hands are required to complete the task expeditiously, then he could requisition similarly experienced judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha.

Significantly, the bench said EC will be publishing the final voter list on Feb 28 containing the names of all those who have been verified. However, as the process of verifying the 50 lakh voters' documents along with claims would take some time, EC would be publishing supplementary voter lists after Feb 28.

SC said the 11 documents notified by EC for SIR work as well as with Class X examination admit card along with marksheet would be considered as valid documents to claim inclusion in the voter list, while making clear yet again that Aadhaar would be used only for identification purposes.

"There is no question of Aadhaar card being used to claim citizenship," the bench said, adding that only cases of voters who have submitted their documents by Feb 14 will be verified by the judicial officers while determining their claim for inclusion in the voter list.

Invoking its powers under Article 142, the bench said the supplementary voter lists would be deemed to be part of the final list published on Feb 28. Laying importance on completion of SIR of WB's voter list, the bench said the Calcutta HC CJ would request his counterparts in Jharkhand and Orissa HCs for additional hands - civil judges with three-year experience - to help in verification of documents and claims of voters bracketed in 'logical discrepancy' and 'unmapped' categories. SC asked EC to bear the expenses towards travel, lodging and honorarium of the judicial officers who would be coming to WB from Jharkhand and Odisha. Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay told the court that most illegal migrants across India have Aadhaar cards which have been made in WB. He said the SC could give a direction to control and curb these fake Aadhaar cards.

CJI said this may require a deeper probe, but this is not the time to do so. "Let the right atmosphere be there for such an exercise," CJI Kant said. Justice Bagchi said the best way forward is for Upadhyay to make a representation to solicitor general Tushar Mehta who could in turn forward it to the Union govt for appropriate action and amend the Representation of the People Act.

Justice Bagchi said, "If Aadhaar is procured fraudulently on an industrial scale as you are alleging, then it requires to be statutorily regulated. Because the RP Act was amended and Aadhaar was brought in as a document which will prove identity. We must acknowledge that." "We have already clarified that Aadhaar is for identity purposes. So, there is no question of citizenship being canvassed through Aadhaar," he said.

No question of Aadhaar being used to claim citizenship: Supreme Court

The order came from a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi after the Calcutta HC CJ informed SC that though 294 serving and retired district judges and additional district judges have been assigned SIR work, they would take at least 80 days to scrutinise documents of 50 lakh voters even if each judicial officer decided 250 cases a day.

The bench allowed the Calcutta HC CJ to draft judicial officers in the state with three years’ experience for SIR work and said that if more additional hands are required to complete the task expeditiously, he could requisition similarly experienced judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha.

Significantly, SC said EC will publish final voter list on Feb 28 containing the names of all those who have been verified. However, as the process of verifying the 50 lakh voters’ documents along with claims would take some time, EC would publish supplementary voter lists after Feb 28.

SC said the 11 documents notified by EC, as well as Class X exam admit card along with the marksheet, would be considered valid to claim inclusion in the voter list, while making clear yet again that Aadhaar would be used only for identification purposes.

“There is no question of Aadhaar being used to claim citizenship,” SC said, adding that only cases of voters who have submitted their documents by Feb 14 will be verified by the judicial officers while determining their claim for inclusion in the voter list.

Invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142, the CJI-led bench said that the supplementary voter lists would be deemed to be part of the final list published on Feb 28.

SC asked EC to bear the expenses towards lodging and honorarium of the judicial officers who would be coming from Jharkhand and Odisha.

Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay told SC that most illegal migrants have Aadhaar cards that have been made in WB. He said the SC could give a direction to control and curb these fake Aadhaar cards.

The CJI said this may require a deeper probe, but this is not the time to do so. Justice Bagchi said the best way forward is for Upadhyay to make a representation to SG Tushar Mehta, who could in turn forward it to the Union govt for appropriate action.

Judges on SIR work get bomb threats

Hoax emails threatening suicide bomb attacks and RDX blasts were sent Tuesday to district judges supervising SIR verification work in Kolkata, West Burdwan, Hooghly and Murshidabad, prompting drills in at least six courts. Searches found nothing. Bengal Chief secretary Nandini Chakravorty termed the threat a hoax.
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