The Supreme Court on Monday told the West Bengal government that it would not create any impediments to the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, even as it assured that hurdles
in the process would be addressed.
“We will remove hurdles, but we will not create any impediments in the completion of SIR. Let us be very clear about it,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said during the hearing.
Senior advocate DS Naidu, appearing in the matter, flagged concerns over the appointment of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), arguing that they perform quasi-judicial functions and must be adequately trained and qualified. He said only 64 officers with adjudicatory experience were appointed, while others were selected based on pay parity, despite SIR decisions being open to challenge in appellate forums.
The bench also discussed the role of micro observers in the process. Senior advocate Shyam Divan argued that large-scale deletion of voter names could not be carried out through micro observers.
The CJI, however, noted that micro observers were part of a system created to assist EROs and AEROs, and that the final decision-making authority rested with the EROs. The court observed that if additional officers joined the process, the quality of decisions could improve.
During the hearing, Divan highlighted the urgency of the matter, pointing out that the SIR process is scheduled to conclude on February 14. He said the draft electoral list contains 7.08 crore voters, of which 6.75 crore are mapped, while around 32 lakh remain unmapped and 1.36 crore fall under the “logical discrepancy” category. The court said it would continue hearing the matter.
