West Bengal SIR | Can't Fix Timeline For Appellate Tribunals, Says Supreme Court; Seek Data On Appeal Disposals
The Supreme Court of India has declined to set a fixed timeline for Appellate Tribunals handling electoral roll revisions in West Bengal. However, the court has requested the Election Commission to provide data on appeal disposal rates to monitor the process.
Why it matters
This case highlights the tension between judicial oversight and administrative autonomy in electoral processes, impacting the voting rights of citizens whose names were deleted from rolls.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday orally commented that it cannot fix any timeline for the decisions by the Appellate Tribunals hearing appeals arising from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, even though it agreed to monitor their functioning.A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing a writ petition filed by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury seeking various directions to streamline and expedite the disposals by the SIR Appellate Tribunals.The Court directed the Election Commission of India to furnish details on the quantum of disposals of appeals by the Appellate Tribunals, and tagged the matter with a similar petition, to be taken up on August 25.Senior Advocate Rauf Rahim, for the petitioner, submitted that the Tribunals are not expeditiously deciding the appeals of persons deleted from the electoral roll; meanwhile, benefits such as ration are being…
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