‘Humiliating’: Ex-Calcutta HC judge Sahidullah Munshi says his name struck off ...
Former Calcutta High Court judge Sahidullah Munshi on Thursday said that his name has been deleted from the voter list after the adjudication process during the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal, The Indian Express reported.Munshi, who is currently serving as the chairperson of the West Bengal Board of Auqaf, told the newspaper that the names of his wife and elder son are still under adjudication, while his younger son has applied as a new voter.
“Till now, only my name has been deleted,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “It is very humiliating and painful…a lot of harassment. The unfortunate part is that they took the documents and said they would upload them, but no receipt was given.”
Munshi is waiting to appeal before an appellate tribunal.
The former judge on Thursday expressed surprise at his name being struck off, saying that he had submitted all required documents, The Indian Express reported.
“I do not know how they have adjudicated and how they have deleted,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. We were kept in the dark. Had we been informed that more documents were required, we could have submitted them. There was a list of documents, and any one should have been sufficient.”
Munshi, however, told the Hindustan Times that he does not blame anyone for his name being deleted.
“I think that, as everything was done in such a hurry, they may not have looked into the documents thoroughly,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “I submitted my passport so that it can’t be disputed.”
The former judge added that he is waiting for the official reason for his name being struck off before filing an appeal.
West Bengal is among the 12 states and Union Territories where the special intensive revision of the electoral roll was undertaken.
On February 28, the Election Commission published the final electoral roll for West Bengal, showing that more than 61 lakh voters had been excluded.
However, the process continued with about 60 lakh “doubtful and pending” cases remaining “under adjudication” based on their objections to their exclusions from the draft rolls published in December.
On February 20, the Supreme Court ordered that judicial officers of the rank of district judge or additional district judge be appointed to help complete the revision exercise in the state amid a tussle between the Trinamool Congress government and the Election Commission.
On Monday, a batch of names approved by the judicial officers was added to the rolls through the first supplementary list published. Of the 60 lakh pending cases, 29 lakh had been adjudicated.
However, the poll panel has not specified how many voters have been added to or dropped off the list.
Technical glitches
Earlier on Wednesday, the Trinamool Congress had alleged that the Election Commission website incorrectly showed that all voters in West Bengal were under adjudication in the claims process of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls.
The ruling party in the state claimed that this has caused panic among the voters.
The Economic Times had also reported that when the supplementary list was made available online on Monday, there were technical glitches, server problems, downloads were slow and the PDF files could not be downloaded.
The Election Commission later said that the problem had been rectified.
Also read: Millions of Bengalis may lose their vote. Not over citizenship but due to clerical errors
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