Supreme Court on SIR Hearing Highlights: Bengal SIR deadline extended by one week to February 14

On the top court decision on SIR, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh told ANI, “The people of Bengal are aware... Everyone filled out their forms on time and fulfilled their responsibilities. However, the government here fears that removing the fake voters from the voter list will cost them the election. That's why they started issuing threats even before the process began.”

Over 19,000 applications for domicile certificates have been received by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in the past six weeks, marking an unprecedented increase. Officials attributed this surge to the Election Commission's current Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, PTI reported.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice asserted that the SIR exercise must proceed without impediment.

"We will not allow anyone to create any impediment in the SIR exercise. It must be clear to the states," PTI quoted CJI.

The bench clarified that the final decision to revise the electoral rolls rests with the electoral roll officers.

"A message must go that the Constitution of India applies to all states," PTI quoted Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre.

In the hearing, senior advocate Shyam Divan raised questions about the appointment of micro-observers and the mass exclusion of eligible voters in the SIR exercise, PTI reported.

"We will not allow anyone to create any impediment in the SIR exercise. It must be clear to the states," PTI quoted the CJI.

The Supreme Court has ordered that the 8,505 State government officials must report for duty at the district electoral offices by 5 pm tomorrow.

The Supreme Court in its interim order has extended the deadline for SIR in West Bengal.

CJI Kant was quoted by Bar and Bench as saying, "Since process of scrutinizing documents submitted by effected persons in response to notices is likely to take more time, and as suggested on behalf of some of petitioners, we direct that atleast 1 week more time beyond 14 feb will be granted to EROs for completing scrutiny of documents and taking apt. decision."

Senior Adv Shyam Diwan, representing appearing for Mamata Banerjee was quoted by LiveLaw as saying, “We don't want mass exclusion - that's the sentiment we have. So long as it's just a minor number, it's a different thing. Computer is a tyrant if number is huge. Please see ECI manual on role of micro-observers. How can micro observer on polling day.”

In the previous hearing, CM Mamata Banerjee raised concerns about the ECI categorising voters as a "logical discrepancy" due to minor name spelling errors, many of which were reportedly caused by translations from Bengali or local dialects to English, LiveLaw reported.

A PIL filed by 'Sanatani Sangsad' requesting the deployment of state police officials under the ECI until the final roll is published was also listed before the bench. The ECI has submitted a counter in this case, accusing violence, intimidation, and obstruction of SIR duties in West Bengal, Bar and Bench reported.

Bengal SIR Supreme Court hearing LIVE: The Supreme Court is currently hearing pleas challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted in West Bengal.