West Bengal SIR: Ex-Calcutta HC Justice Sahidullah Munshi, family included in voter list after initial exclusion

Former Calcutta High Court Justice Sahidullah Munshi and his wife and son have been included in the electoral rolls of West Bengal after they were initially excluded from the list during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

A second supplementary list published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday has the names of the judge and his family.

“In the second supplementary list published late at night, it was shown our names have been cleared. Now it seems that there is no dispute,” Justice Munshi told Bar & Bench.

The initial exclusion of Justice Munshi had added fuel to fire since the SIR exercise in West Bengal is already under scrutiny over various allegations by the State government against the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The development came hours after Justice Munshi had raised concerns over the process, stating that despite submitting documents twice and undergoing verification, his name had been marked as “not found” in the electoral rolls.

Speaking to Bar & Bench earlier, Munshi had said,

“No reasons were assigned to me why my name was deleted, so I do not know on what ground I can appeal before the appellate tribunal.”

He had also flagged the absence of documentation in the process.

“Documents that I have submitted, no receipts were given to me as to what sort of documents were given. So even if they want to decline later that the documents were improper, I do not really know because no receipt was given to me,” he said.

Munshi had also questioned the appellate mechanism put in place.

“The 19 appellate tribunals that have been constituted, they are only on paper. There are no guidelines as to how those tribunals can function and what they can do. I do not know whom to approach,” he had told Bar and Bench earlier.

The Election Commission’s SIR exercise in West Bengal involves a fresh verification of electoral rolls through enumeration, publication of draft rolls and a claims and objections process. The exercise has been under scrutiny, with questions raised over procedural clarity and safeguards during verification.