The Supreme Court on Friday welcomed the record percentage of voting on Thursday in the first phase of West Bengal assembly elections.The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipin Pancholi also expressed satisfaction over lack of any poll-related violence in the State.According to the Election Commission of India, the first phase of West Bengal polls recorded 91.78% voting percentage, the highest ever poll-participation since Independence. The previous record was 84.72 percent in 2011."As a citizen of India, I was very happy to see the voting percentage. When people exercise right to vote, this strengthens democratic set up," CJI Kant remarked.Similarly, Justice Bagchi said,"There has been no incidents of violence also.".The Court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State. The top court had declined to stop the process ahead of the elections and ordered deployment of judicial officers and retired judges for adjudication of the claims of those facing deletion from voter lists.Today, Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay informed the Court that there was about 92 percent voting on Thursday. Migrant labourers have come to vote from far, he added.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also expressed happiness with the voting percentage."92 percent is historical voter turnout. But i join Mr Banerjee... It was a peaceful election leaving apart a few incidents," he said..Meanwhile, the Court was informed that appellate tribunals have decided only a minuscule number of voter cases."Only 136 appeals have been disposed off out of 27 lakhs filed. This is very very sad," Bandyopadhyay submitted.CJI Kant remarked that Calcutta High Court Chief Justice can be approached in this regard."We can understand that some issues will be arising which will require the attention of Chief Justice of High Court order appellate tribunal. We grant liberty to approach the Chief Justice for such issues. For those whose names excluded out of SIR and appeals filed, we have already asked the tribunals to take up out of turn hearings keeping in mind the urgency," the Court said..During the hearing today, the Court also granted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) more time to file a chargesheet in the case related to a recent gherao of judicial officers deployed for adjudication of voter claims.
