SC seeks priority for inclusion of WB deleted voters
The petitioners alternatively sought permission to vote in the state’s civic elections in November: Reports
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on October 16 pleas seeking early disposal of appeals filed by voters whose names were deleted from West Bengal’s electoral rolls during the special intensive revision (SIR).
The petitioners alternatively sought permission to vote in the state’s civic elections in November.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana said it was aware of the difficulties faced by the SIR tribunals and was trying to resolve multiple problems.
“We are trying to sort out these problems like the bulk of the appeals are of those who are seeking deletion of names of voters. We will be asking the tribunals to push back those appeals seeking deletion of names and decide first those which seek inclusion,” the CJI said.
Justice Bagchi said there were also problems with the software, which the court was seeking to address.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that 93 per cent of the appeals decided by the tribunals so far had been allowed.
They sought expeditious disposal of the pending appeals so that the affected voters could participate in the civic elections.
Bhushan said voters whose names had been deleted remained uncertain about their eligibility to vote in the civic polls after being unable to participate in the recent by polls.