NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sternly cautioned against any attempt to question the integrity of judicial officers overseeing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. It declared that such actions would not be tolerated and that trust in the judiciary must be maintained.The warning came from a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi, while hearing a batch of petitions concerning the ongoing revision exercise.
“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,” CJI Kant told the applicants.The Court took strong exception to certain applications that flagged the pendency of claims before judicial officers assigned to scrutinise voter inclusion and deletion requests. Reiterating to maintain faith in the judiciary, CJI Kant said the top court would not allow any undermining of officers carrying out judicial functions under its directions.To address potential grievances, the Supreme Court directed that Calcutta high court chief justice Sujoy Paul may constitute a special bench. It would comprise sitting or former judges to hear appeals against decisions made during the SIR process.“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 Bench further instructed that the Election Commission will bear all costs associated with the appellate mechanism and the judicial officers engaged 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, honourarium shall be fixed for the service of former judicial officers, especially when 200 such officers are from neighbouring states,” the order read.Judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand have been deputed to conduct the SIR following the Supreme Court’s earlier observation of a “trust deficit” between the ECI and the West Bengal government.On 20 February, the Court had directed the deployment of serving and retired district judges to ensure the revision’s smooth execution.During Tuesday’s hearing, Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy informed the Bench that around seven lakh claims had been decided, 63 lakh remained under adjudication, and approximately 57 lakh were still pending.In response, CJI Kant expressed confidence in the officers’ work. “We knew you people would run away when judicial officers are appointed. The high court chief justice has told us 10 lakh claims have been decided,” he remarked.Emphasising the seriousness of the judicial officers’ findings, CJI Kant added, “If a judicial officer prima facie finds that you are not entitled to vote, then you will not vote.”The Court directed the ECI to issue a notification announcing the constitution of the appellate body to handle voter roll disputes.
