West Bengal SIR: Supreme Court says "will not tolerate" allegations on integrity of judicial officers

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong exception to certain applications filed before it flagging pendency of claims before judicial officers entrusted with the task of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated the Court would not tolerate attempts to question the integrity of judicial officers.

“Your application is premature and it shows as if you don’t have trust. How did you dare such applications are filed? No one should dare question the judicial officers. As a Chief Justice of India, I will not tolerate this,” he told the applicants.

Pertinently, the Court said that Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul may constitute a special bench of former or sitting judges to hear appeals against decisions taken during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

The Court was hearing a batch of petitions concerning the ongoing SIR exercise relating to electoral rolls in the State.

The Court clarified that where a judicial officer rejects a claim for inclusion in the electoral rolls, the aggrieved person may approach this appellate mechanism.

“We leave it to the Chief Justice (of High Court) to decide how many judges shall be there in the appellate bench,” said CJI Kant.

The Court further directed that the Election Commission of India (ECI) will bear the expenses for the functioning of the appellate body and the judicial officers involved in the exercise.

“High Court Chief Justice is requested to fix the honorarium payable to former justices or present judges and all costs shall be borne by the election commission of India. Similarly honorarium shall be fixed for the service of former judicial officers especially when 200 such officers are from neighboring states,” said the Bench.

The Court directed the ECI to publish a notification regarding the constitution of such an appellate body.

Judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand have been roped in by the Supreme Court to do the SIR work of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in West Bengal.

After observing that there was a trust deficit between the ECI and West Bengal government, the apex court had on February 20 ordered deployment of district judges and additional district judges, including the retired judges, for smooth conduct of the SIR.

During the hearing today, Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy submitted that around seven lakh claims had been decided, while 63 lakh were under adjudication and about 57 lakh remained pending.

Responding to the concerns raised, CJI Kant strongly defended the role of judicial officers conducting the exercise.

“We knew you people will run away when judicial officers are appointed. The High Court Chief Justice has told us 10 lakh claims have been decided,” he remarked.

CJI Kant further stated the Court would not tolerate attempts to question the integrity of judicial officers.

“Your application is premature and it shows as if you don’t have trust. How did you dare such applications are filed? No one should dare question the judicial officers. As a Chief Justice of India, I will not tolerate this,” he said.

Emphasising the consequences of findings recorded by the judicial officers, CJI Kant added,

“If judicial officer prima facie finds that you are not entitled to vote, then you will not vote.”

Guruswamy clarified that the petitioners were not questioning the officers but highlighting concerns about voters whose names were under scrutiny. She said there were roughly 48 lakh “mapped voters” who had been part of the 2002 electoral rolls and had voted earlier.

CJI Kant responded that the SIR process itself was meant to verify genuine voters.

“That is why SIR is there. All genuine will be included. All unauthorised etc will not be there. That is being looked at by the judicial officers. Why should we look into this? Till a day before voting, if the cloud upon a voter is removed then he can vote,” he said.

Justice Bagchi emphasised that the exercise was being undertaken to ensure accuracy in the electoral rolls.

“We would not have undertaken this humongous exercise if we wanted to penalise anyone.”

He added that inclusion or exclusion at this stage would remain subject to future decisions, and asked that the supplementary list be published by the ECI.

The Court also took note of a communication received from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, informing the Supreme Court that 10,16,000 objections had been disposed of as on March 9, with over 500 judicial officers working day and night to complete the exercise.

Reading from the communication, CJI Kant said repeated video conferences were being held with district judges and that leaves of judicial officers involved in the exercise had been cancelled and they were working on Sundays as well.

The communication also flagged certain technical issues relating to log-in IDs required by judicial officers to access the portal, which appeared to have arisen at the level of the Election Commission of India.

Senior Advocate DS Naidu, appearing for the Commission, said the issue related to a technical login requirement and assured the Court that it would be rectified immediately.

“We expect the ECI to render full assistance and support to the judicial officers in completing the exercise,” held CJI Kant.

The Court accordingly directed the ECI to ensure that no mandatory step is introduced which may disrupt the process unless approved by the High Court Chief Justice, and that any technical disruptions in the portal are immediately addressed.

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