West Bengal SIR: Supreme Court asks ECI for data on appeals against electoral roll deletions

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court instructed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide details of appeals resolved by tribunals reviewing the deletion of names from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal. The bench, consisting of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, was hearing a petition by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who requested the creation of SIR tribunals at each block in West Bengal to expedite the handling of appeals against electoral roll deletions.

The court emphasized the need to first assess the volume of cases handled by the existing tribunals before addressing other issues such as infrastructure and timelines for resolution. During the hearing, the petitioner sought a timeline for tribunal decisions, but the court stated it was unable to set one at this point. Senior Advocate Vikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, representing another petitioner, raised concerns about the tribunals' infrastructure.

The court noted that the disposal figures would be used to evaluate the workload and functioning of the tribunals before deciding on further directives. The court also mentioned that any dispute over the denial of social welfare benefits to individuals whose electoral roll names were deleted would need to be addressed in the Calcutta High Court.