Bengal SIR: Supreme Court considers plea for excluded voters to vote in civic polls, flags software glitches

The court also discusses prioritising appeals seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls over those seeking deletion of voters

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will hear the case concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal on October 16 so they can cast their votes in the Kolkata and Howrah municipal elections in November.

As per the application, the Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporation elections are scheduled to be held in late November, with the electoral process expected to be completed by December 7. Relying on ECI affidavits, it is stated that there are 1.7 lakhs appeals pending in Kolkata and Howrah (where elections are due), reported LiveLaw.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said they are aware of the difficulties faced by SIR tribunals and there are multi-faceted 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," CJI Kant said.

Justice Bagchi said there is a problem with the software also and the court is looking to address those issues.

The court also discussed prioritising appeals seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls over those seeking deletion of voters.

"There are two priorities we are contemplating. One is that appeals filed by persons seeking deletion of voters can be pushed back and taken up at the last stage," said CJI Kant, reported Bar and Bench.

Bhushan said these deleted voters are in a fix whether they will be allowed to vote in the civic body polls as they were not allowed to do so in the recent bypolls.