Election Commission of India (ECI) office in New Delhi (File photo/PTI)
NEW DELHI: The election commission on Tuesday extended the special intensive revision (SIR) deadline in poll-bound West Bengal by two weeks. The roll revision in the TMC-ruled state will go on till February 21, and rolls will be published on February 28.In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, the Election Commission said the decision was taken in compliance with the Supreme Court’s February 9 order.Earlier, the final voters’ list was scheduled to be published on February 14, with elections to follow after completion of the exercise.”…in compliance of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s direction, the Commission has decided to revise the programme of ongoing SIR in the State of West Bengal as follows,” the letter said, according to news agency PTI.Under the revised schedule, hearings on notices will conclude by February 14. Scrutiny of documents and disposal of cases will be completed by February 21.Rationalisation of polling stations is set to be finished by February 25, while health parameter checks will conclude by February 27. The final electoral roll will now be published on February 28, according to the letter shared by the CEO.Supreme Court said Monday it would under no circumstances allow stalling of special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls in 12 states, but said it was open to suggestions to ensure genuine voters are not left out. The CJI-led bench extended by a week the February 7 deadline for submission of documents by voters issued notice by EC, including 1.36 crore voters categorised under “logical discrepancy”. It also sought a personal affidavit from the Bengal DGP on EC’s charge of TMC functionaries making attempts to derail SIR. “We hope the state remembers the laws of the land,” it said.The bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N V Anjaria, which had heard West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee passionately argue for discontinuing SIR, frowned upon the state govt for not providing the names of 8,500 group B cadre officials to EC for assisting electoral revision officers (EROs) and assistant EROs in the massive document verification work. The displeasure had a dramatic effect as the West Bengal government provided the list within minutes to EC in the court and said it would verify the suitability of the officials.The court also dismissed the fear expressed by Banerjee’s counsel Shyam Divan who told the bench that the process adopted by EC would lead to mass exclusion of voters given the fact that 50 per cent of the cases of voters facing “logical discrepancy” scrutiny are misspelling of names, which happened due to translation errors.“This is a speculative apprehension,” the bench said, and allayed it by saying suitable officials, inducted by EC from among the 8,500 officers provided by the state government, would assist the EROs and AEROs about the cases where notices have been issued merely because of spelling errors in names and facilitate their inclusion in voter lists.
