West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that her state was being “targeted” through the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls, and questioned why the process was not being carried out in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Assam, Live Law reported.
The Election Commission is conducting a special revision of the voter list in Assam, which is similar to the usual updates to the electoral roll.
On Wednesday, the Trinamool Congress chief appeared in person before the court to argue her petition challenging the special intensive revision being conducted by the Election Commission.
This is the first time a chief minister has personally appeared before the Supreme Court to make verbal submissions, according to Live Law.
Banerjee had moved an interlocutory application seeking permission to appear and argue the case herself, Bar and Bench reported.
The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi was hearing a petition filed by the chief minister raising concerns that the voter list revision exercise poses an immediate and irreversible risk of mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the Assembly elections, Bar and Bench reported.
She has sought the court’s direction that the polls be conducted on the basis of the existing electoral rolls prepared last year.
The state polls are expected to be held by April or May.
On Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that there was an “atmosphere of hostility” in the state against the officials of the Election Commission, Live Law reported.
The bench issued a notice to the poll panel on Banerjee’s plea and sought a response by Monday.
Banerjee has also asked the court to direct the election authorities not to summon voters for hearings in cases involving name mismatches or spelling variations categorised as “logical discrepancies” during the revision exercise.
She asked for such corrections to be carried out suo moto on the basis of available records.
Logical discrepancies include a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen was among those who got such a notice, with the Election Commission citing a gap of less than 15 years between him and his parents.
The draft electoral rolls for West Bengal under the special intensive revision exercise were published on December 16. The names of over 58 lakh voters were removed from voter lists in the state as they had either died, migrated outside the state or did not submit their enumeration forms.
In her interlocutory application, Banerjee submitted that she is “aware of the ground realities faced by residents of West Bengal due to the SIR process”, Bar and Bench reported.
“Her appearance in person would assist the court in the effective adjudication of the case,” the legal news outlet quoted her as submitting before the court.
|
