High level meeting in High Court on SIR in Bengal, leave of judicial officers canceled (file photo)
State Bureau, Kolkata. The judiciary has taken charge amid the ongoing impasse over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists ahead of the Bengal Assembly elections.
As per the Supreme Court's direction on SIR, Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujay Pal held a high-level meeting on Saturday with top administrative and electoral officials of the state to outline the actions.
After the apex court expressed concern over the situation of 'distrust' between the state government and the Election Commission, the responsibility of removing discrepancies in the voter list will now be on the shoulders of judicial officers.
Data matching will be done under judicial monitoring
As per the directions of the Supreme Court, now the logical discrepancies and claims present in the voter list will be resolved under the supervision of district judges and retired judicial officers. To implement this unprecedented order, the Registrar General of Calcutta High Court has issued a notification canceling the leave of all judicial officers of the state till March 9.
No judge or judicial officer will be entitled to leave except in special circumstances and medical emergency. Even all the training programs at the Judicial Academy have been postponed. The officers who are on leave have been directed to return to work by February 23 so that the process related to the publication of the voter list on February 28 can be completed on time.
No eligible voter's name should be left out
Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, State Director General of Police Piyush Pandey and Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Aggarwal were present in the marathon meeting held on Saturday. After the meeting, Manoj Aggarwal clarified that the aim of the Commission is to ensure that the name of no eligible voter is left out of the list.
He said that judicial officers will be appointed for 294 assembly seats of the state so that transparency is maintained. Although the final list will be published only on February 28, supplementary lists can also be released later based on the recommendations of judicial officers.
In the meeting, the DGP was instructed to provide full security to these judicial officers. District Collectors were also instructed to immediately provide necessary technical and administrative resources to the officers.
Asked to end 'blame game'
The Chief Justice made it clear that the accuracy of the voter list is a constitutional obligation. He asked to end the ongoing 'blame game' between the state government and the Election Commission and focus on matching the data.
While the ruling Trinamool Congress welcomed the judicial intervention, calling it a victory for fairness, the opposition BJP alleged that the state government was deliberately promoting anomalies. Political analysts believe that this order of appointment of judicial officers in Bengal is a serious comment on the administrative credibility of the state compared to other poll-bound states.
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