New Delhi/ Bhubaneswar, February 24: The Supreme Court has authorized judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand to assist in resolving a backlog of 50 lakh voter discrepancy cases in West Bengal as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The cases involve claims and objections related to voters categorized under “logical discrepancy/unmapped” during the electoral process in the state.
A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, granted additional powers to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. This includes the authority to deploy Civil Judges, if necessary, to accelerate the process.
On February 20, the Supreme Court raised concerns about the “trust deficit” between the West Bengal Government and the Election Commission of India (ECI), which led to the decision to involve both current and former district judges to address these claims and objections.
During a hearing on Tuesday, CJI Surya Kant shared that, as of February 22, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court reported approximately 50 lakh pending cases of logical discrepancies or unmapped categories. He also noted that 250 judicial officers were available to take on the cases. However, even if each officer handled 250 cases per day, the process would still take a minimum of 80 days to resolve.
To expedite the resolution, the bench further instructed that, in addition to the judicial officers already assigned, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court could call upon Civil Judges (Senior Division) and Civil Judges (Junior Division), provided they have at least three years of experience.
