NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented order, the Supreme Court on Friday directed deployment of serving as well as retired judicial officers to oversee adjudication of claims and objections arising from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound West Bengal.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin Pancholi observed that a “trust deficit” between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) had stalled the SIR exercise at a crucial stage.
“There is an unfortunate blame game of allegations and counter-allegations which shows trust deficit between two constitutional functionaries, ” the apex court said.
Noting that thousands of voters who received notices under the “logical discrepancy list” had already submitted documents supporting their inclusion in electoral rolls, the CJI Kant-led Bench stressed these claims now required a fair adjudication.
The Supreme Court said that in view of the “extraordinary circumstances”, it was left with little option but to involve the judiciary to ensure fairness and completion of the revision exercise.