Delhi
Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court against the “arbitrary deletion” of approximately 2.7 million names from the West Bengal voter list during the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise earlier this year.
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“Due to the deletion of their names, many underprivileged citizens are being actively deprived of various essential social and government welfare benefits,” he listed as one of the plea’s main concerns.
The plea demanded the deployment of an “adequate” number of sitting or retired judges to manage the state’s “extraordinary” caseload, pointing out that it worsened after former Calcutta high court chief justice TS Sivagnanam retired from the SIR tribunal. “It has become evident that with only 2 functional tribunals in Murshidabad handling just 30–50 cases a day, clearing the massive backlog will take 4 to 5 years!” added the plea. It also pointed out that nearly 500,000 voters in Murshidabad district alone had their names removed due to minor clerical errors, and were not granted “any opportunity for a fair hearing.”
The petition also called for the establishment of block-wise appellate tribunals in “heavily affected” districts like Murshidabad and Malda to allow faster hearings and a transparent digital portal that allows the public to access daily cause-lists and copies of judicial orders.
