Judges of Bengal tribunals ask Election Commission to fix portal, drop Aadhaar authentication

JUDGES OF Tribunals appointed by the orders of the Supreme Court to decide appeals of those affected by the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal have flagged at least twice in the last four weeks that the Election Commission requirement for Aadhaar authentication in its portal is holding them back from issuing final orders.

Official records accessed by The Indian Express show that the judges had taken exception to the introduction of the Aadhaar authentication required for them to issue orders on the appeals in September, and again less than two weeks ago. Just three days after the Aadhaar-authentication screen was introduced on September 21, the judges sought its removal, in writing, on September 24. As recently as October 13, the in-charge of the tribunals once again asked the EC to "fix the issue" to ensure proper functioning of the tribunals such that final orders can be uploaded, the records show.

The judges also separately raised concerns with the Election Commission and the Calcutta High Court about the poor conditions of the Tribunals. From having "to work in a melee within a room of about 12×10 sq ft along with 7/8 members of staff" to lack of stationery and access to washrooms, 10 of the judges wrote on October 1 and pushed for moving the Tribunals from Joka in the outskirts of Kolkata to a more central place in the city, and a doubling of the honorarium since Rs 25,000 now "does not appear either to be hon'ble or befitting to the dignity of the judges". Some of these concerns were raised by the judges in the second week of August too.

The Election Commission of India did not respond to queries mailed by The Indian Express on October 21 to its spokesperson.

The Election Commission's IT division has designed a separate digital portal for the Tribunals. As reported first by The Indian Express on October 7, judges of more than a dozen Tribunals had highlighted glaring gaps in the portal. It did not allow them to serve notices to parties, upload additional documents from voters who filed appeals, or hold virtual hearings, or restore a deleted voter. It didn't even let the appellants download Tribunal orders, the judges had noted in the minutes of a meeting held on August 11, and sent separately to the Election Commission and the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court.

The EC subsequently updated the portal and sources aware of the developments said a virtual meeting was conducted by Director General of IT of ECI Seema Khanna on September 21 to familiarise the judges with this updated version. The judges were, however, not informed that a new feature requires them to authenticate with their private Aadhaar numbers before they could finally upload an order in the portal. The portal also limited the kinds of documents the judges could accept from appellants to the 13 documents mentioned by the EC during the SIR process.

Writing to the Additional Chief Electoral Officer and nodal officer for tribunals on September 24, the tribunals' venue-in-charge said: "The Honourable Judges at the Appellate Tribunal require the Aadhaar authentication screen removed from the AT portal for the purpose of disposal of appeals." So, while orders are being disposed of physically, they are not being uploaded in the portal.

In fact, the matter came up once again on October 12 when the office of the CEO wrote to the tribunals' in-charge forwarding the request of an appellant for disposal of his appeal. In response, the tribunal informed the CEO office on October 13 that: "Since the system at present does not allow the tribunals to upload the final order and in this regard, CEO has already been apprised of vide letter dt. 24.09.2026. CEO, WB be once again requested to fix the issue to ensure proper functioning of the Tribunals."

While the Election Commission's SIR was on in nine states and three Union Territories from October last year, in one of the states, West Bengal, the process adopted by the EC and later ordered by the Supreme Court was unique and unprecedented. Finding that there was a trust deficit between the then Trinamool Congress-ruled state government and the EC, the court had on February 20 ordered adjudication of electors' eligibility by judicial officers, after invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142.

Hundreds of judicial officers then went through 60.06 lakh electors' cases, who were flagged by the EC's centralised software for "logical discrepancies". Eventually, the judicial officers ordered the deletion of 27.16 lakh of those electors, striking them off the rolls just weeks before polling the Assembly elections in April.

The Supreme Court on March 20 ordered the setting up of appellate tribunals, of retired High Court judges, to give those deleted a chance to appeal. The EC had appointed 19 former judges to act as appellate tribunals for the West Bengal SIR.

As of September 18, the EC told the Supreme Court that 38.31 lakh appeals had been filed, of which 22.21 lakh were filed by the deleted voters and 16.10 lakh appeals were against inclusions. Only 1.26 lakh appeals had been disposed of till September 10, the EC told the court.

On October 1, the 10 judges wrote that the tribunals were set up in a hurry after 27 lakh voters were cut from the rolls after adjudication. "...in order to assuage the public discontents, venue and court rooms were selected and constructed in a jiffy. In such emergent situation, taking it as a stop gap measure for a short period and in fact, it was given to understand as such that is was a matter of few months, 19 Appellate Tribunals, along with court rooms, were given shape in a vacant building of the Central government in Joka purely as a make-shift arrangement," they wrote.

They pointed out that the tribunals' office in Joka is about 30km from Kolkata/New Town, with the roads being in "horrible condition", leading to a commute of two to three hours. "Judges are to work in a melee within a room of about 12×10 sq. ft. along with 7/8 members of staff working on computers whole day long in inconceivable conditions having no scope for recess. Judges have no separate chambers or washroom," they wrote.

"Last, not the least, the honorarium provided to the Retired Judges does not appear either to be hon'ble or befitting to the dignity of the judges..." they said, adding that a representation for increasing it to Rs.50,000 per week from Rs.25,000 was already pending with the Chief Justice since June.

They recommended that the tribunals' office be relocated to a more central place, the judges be given better working conditions, the staff be given extra compensation for their work and the honorarium for the judges be "befitting" for them.

This isn't the first time the judges have flagged the problems with the EC portal and their working conditions. At a meeting on August 11, at least a dozen judges had flagged the inability to issue notices, upload additional documents and hold virtual hearings through the portal, as per the minutes of the meeting.