The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that deletion of a person’s name during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process does not automatically mean loss of citizenship or exclusion from social welfare schemes.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana sought detailed information from the Election Commission regarding applications filed before SIR tribunals in West Bengal. The court asked the poll panel to disclose how many applications have been received, how many have been disposed of and how many names have ultimately been included in the electoral rolls.
The Election Commission informed the court that it had already held one meeting on the issue and would conduct another. It sought 10 more days to provide the required information.
The Chief Justice directed the Commission to file an affidavit specifying the total number of applications seeking inclusion of names and those seeking deletion. The court also asked whether additional tribunals would be required to clear the pending cases. At present, 19 tribunals are functioning in the state.
According to information obtained through an RTI application, around 38.10 lakh applications have reportedly been filed before the tribunals. Of these, nearly seven lakh applications were submitted by voters seeking restoration of their names after deletion, while more than 31 lakh applications were filed by the Election Commission itself.
During Tuesday’s hearing, petitioners’ lawyers Firdous Shamim and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya urged the court to prioritise disposal of the seven lakh restoration applications. Petitioners have also raised concerns over the lack of publicly available information on the disposal rate and timeline for completing the remaining cases.এল।
