EC flags non-compliance by Bengal, SC issues notice to poll body

The EC on Wednesday flagged alleged non-compliance by the West Bengal government in implementing several of its directions related to electoral administration and sought time-bound compliance by February 9, a senior official said. In a letter to the chief secretary, the Election Commission (EC) said multiple directions issued earlier had not been complied with despite repeated reminders. The poll panel pointed out that FIRs were yet to be filed against two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), two Assistant EROs (AEROs) and a Data Entry Operator under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, along with relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state, and alleging that the process could lead to large-scale disenfranchisement. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, sought the poll body’s response and scheduled the matter for further hearing on Monday. In her plea, Banerjee has sought urgent interim relief, asking the court to restrain the ECI from deleting the names of voters during the revision exercise, particularly those flagged under the “logical discrepancy” category, while the case remains under judicial scrutiny. 

Appearing for the chief minister, senior advocate Shyam Divan argued that the revision was being conducted in undue haste, with only 11 days left for the final publication of electoral rolls on 14 February and just four days remaining to hear objections. He told the court that around 32 lakh voters were “unmapped”, while more than 1.36 crore names had been placed in the logical discrepancy list.Divan alleged that nearly 70 lakh notices had been issued due to minor spelling differences, often arising from the transliteration of Bengali names into English. He said commonly used documents such as Aadhaar cards, domicile certificates and OBC certificates were allegedly not being accepted, forcing people to stand in queues for hours without clarity on why their names had been flagged. The bench observed that spelling variations linked to local dialects were a nationwide issue and could not be grounds for excluding genuine voters.
Assuring the petitioner, the bench said the court would look for a “practical solution” and stressed that no genuine voter’s rights could be taken away. “We will not shy away from our responsibility,” the court said, while clarifying that a separate case challenging the overall validity of the SIR process was already pending. Representing the ECI, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi said the commission had been compelled to appoint micro-observers after the West Bengal government failed to provide sufficient Class-B officers to serve as Electoral Registration Officers, despite repeated requests.