Shows faith in Constitution: Supreme Court turns down objection to Mamata Banerjee's court appearance

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down the objections raised by Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha to the personal appearance of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the case concerning special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria said that it is not new and shows trust and faith in Constitution and its institutions.

"What is unheard in it? This shows trust and faith in the constitution. Don't politicise this issue," the Court told the counsel for Hindu Mahasabha.

Mamata Banerjee had appeared and argued before the Supreme Court on February 4 in the case filed by her against SIR in West Bengal.

Addressing the Court herself, Banerjee questioned the manner in which the revision exercise was being carried out. The CM was in full form, at one point referring to the Election Commission as a “WhatsApp Commission”, alleging that directions were being issued by the poll body informally through WhatsApp. She told the Bench that the process appeared to focus on deletion of names rather than inclusion and said that genuine voters were being removed from the rolls.

Banerjee flagged concerns relating to poor voters and women. She cited instances where women were allegedly deleted from the rolls because of surname changes after marriage. She also raised objections to the deployment of micro observers from outside West Bengal, alleging that they were overriding local booth level officers (BLOs).

Last year, the ECI had held SIR in Bihar ahead of the assembly polls there. Multiple petitions, including those filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW), challenged the legality of the process. However, the ECI proceeded with the SIR since the top court did not impose any stay on the same.

Subsequently, the ECI extended the SIR to other States and Union Territories, including West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This led to multiple petitions challenging the same. The Court reserved its decision on them on January 29.

Banerjee subsequently moved the Court challenging the ECI's decision to hold a SIR in the State and sought a direction that the polls be conducted on the basis of the existing rolls prepared last year. She has also sought an urgent direction to halt deletion of voters - particularly those under the “Logical Discrepancy” category, from the electoral rolls.

In her plea, Banerjee expressed apprehension of immediate and irreversible threat of mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the upcoming state assembly elections. This will disrupt the level playing field for political parties in the polls, the Chief Minister said.

“The entire SIR exercise is an effort at disenfranchising the existing voters on the Electoral Roll by forcing them to prove their citizenship with “documentary” evidence against an arbitrary cut-off date of 2002. This violates the Constitution, the Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951,” she contended in her petition.