Supreme Court to hear TMC’s plea against SIR voter roll revision in West Bengal

Top judges are hearing petitions accusing the Election Commission of flawed procedures in revising West Bengal’s electoral rolls.

The Supreme Court on Monday took up a batch of petitions filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls currently underway in West Bengal, due to mounting political and legal turmoil over the exercise.

A Constitution Bench made up of Justices Dipankar Datta and Joymalya Bagchi, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, and heard arguments regarding purported procedural flaws in the SIR process. The Election Commission of India (ECI) was given a week to respond to interim pleas by TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, as requested by the court earlier last week.

O'Brien's attorney, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, informed the court that the Election Commission was giving important directives to booth-level officers and other officials via private channels like WhatsApp messages, circumventing formal written orders and making it challenging to keep an audit trail. He also highlighted the creation of a "logical discrepancy" category, which calls for informal court hearings for voters who have been marked for small differences in personal information.

Many of the SIR orders, according to Sen's plea, are arbitrary and unconstitutional and could result in the unlawful removal of legitimate voters from the rolls. At the time of the hearing, political protests in West Bengal were on the rise. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had previously stated that she will approach the Supreme Court "as an ordinary citizen" to protect the democratic rights of voters affected by the SIR process.

As the top court considers whether the SIR exercise, a thorough revision of voter lists prior to elections, complies with procedural and constitutional protections, the case is anticipated to go on.