SC to hear on October 16 pleas of Bengal voters deleted from electoral rolls under SIR

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on October 16 pleas by voters whose names were deleted from West Bengal’s electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, seeking early disposal of their appeals against the deletions, reported news agency PTI.

PTI reports that the petitioners have alternatively sought permission to vote in the state’s civic body elections scheduled for November.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said it was aware of the difficulties faced by SIR tribunals, which were dealing with multiple issues.

“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,” Chief Justice Kant said.

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

Advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, said 93 per cent of appeals pending with SIR tribunals had been allowed so far. They urged the court to direct the expeditious disposal of pending appeals so that the affected voters could participate in the civic polls.

Bhushan said the deleted voters were uncertain whether they would be allowed to vote in the civic elections, as they had been barred from voting in the recent bypolls.

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