Kolkata, June 21 -- The Supreme Court has reportedly directed an appellate tribunal dealing with disputes arising from West Bengal's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to grant an out-of-turn hearing to a 75-year-old advocate whose name was deleted from the voters' list.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant passed the order while hearing a plea by the Murshidabad-based lawyer, who claimed that his appeal against the deletion of his name had remained pending since March, despite being filed under the statutory mechanism for reviewing voter exclusions.
The court reportedly noted that the petitioner had practised law in his district for more than five decades and had been exercising his franchise for a similarly long period. The petitioner contended that he had been a recognised voter well before 2002 and that his status had never previously been questioned by any authority.
Observing that the petitioner appeared, prima facie, to be a genuine resident and citizen of West Bengal, the bench said it was satisfied with his credentials.
At the same time, the court emphasised that a specialised system for adjudicating such disputes was already in place through appellate tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and retired judges. The Chief Justice also referred to a recent communication from the Calcutta High Court indicating that a large number of appeals were awaiting disposal before the tribunals and that additional time might be required to complete the exercise.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.