'Ironic': Supreme Court Dismisses Petition of Bengal Electoral Officers Deleted from Rolls

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi asked the petitioners to approach the appellate tribunals which have so far cleared 0.01% of cases.

The Wire Staff

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi asked the petitioners to approach the appellate tribunals which have so far cleared 0.01% of cases.

ironic supreme court dismisses petition of bengal electoral officers deleted from rolls

Representative image of polling officials in Birbhum. Photo: PTI.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain petitions by electoral officers who are themselves deleted from the rolls after the special intensive revision in Bengal.

The first phase of voting is over in the state.

LiveLaw reports that 65 petitioners – who are enlisted as electoral officers and have been given election duty – had moved court noting that they unable to vote despite the fact that their duty orders mention their EPIC numbers.

However, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi asked the petitioners to approach the appellate tribunals which have been formed to hear appeals against exclusions from the electoral roll in the SIR adjudication process.

The officers had already filed appeals on April 5, but these had not been taken up yet. The Supreme Court's refusal to entertain the petition will mean that there is a good chance that their appeals will not be heard in time. Out of over 14 lakh people found ineligible to vote in the first phase, only 136 were reportedly cleared by the appellate tribunal ahead of the April 23 polling date – barely 0.01% of those affected.

The Supreme Court had last week ordered that persons whose appeals are allowed by the appellate tribunals before April 21 (for the first phase on April 23) and April 27 (for the second phase on April 29), will be allowed to vote. However, the grandson of artist Nandalal Bose – who was cleared similarly – could not vote in the first phase a day ago.

Senior Advocate M.R. Shamshad, for the petitioners, described the situation as "ironic". "A person who is conducting the election can't vote," he said.

He also noted the "ex-facie arbitrariness" in the case, the report said, as their names were deleted without any show-cause notice.

"This election, we understand. More valuable right to remain on the rolls, we will examine," Justice Bagchi cryptically observed after the matter was over.

Nearly 27 lakh appeals are stated to be pending before the tribunals.

This article went live on April twenty-fourth, two thousand twenty six, at twenty-seven minutes past one in the afternoon.

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