"Understand The Stress": What's Behind Supreme Court's Bengal SIR Ruling

Noting that the Election Commission must understand the "stress" people are under due to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of voter lists in West Bengal, the Supreme Court today directed the poll body to release the names of voters who have received notices under the "logical discrepancy" category.

The Election Commission has issued notices to three categories of voters -- mapped, unmapped and those with logical discrepancies. The mapped category includes those whose records have been linked to voter data, but require further verification. The 'unmapped' category includes voters whose records were not found linked to electoral data.

The 'logical discrepancy' category has people who have received notices for inconsistencies such as a mismatch in parents' names, different spellings, and implausible age gaps between children and parents.

The court today asked the poll body to release the names of about 1.25 crore people who have been served notices under this category. These names, the court said, should be displayed at gram panchayats, block offices and the ward offices, and those served notices should be granted more time to submit documents.

The court also said adequate manpower must be deployed during hearings, and local authorities should provide receipts for documents received and share reasons for a final decision on objections raised.

A Surname Spelling Problem

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien, told the bench that people are being served notices under the 'logical discrepancy' category for the age gap between them and their grandparents. He also said the number of venues for hearings is 300, but about 1,900 are required. "They say that if Ganguli is spelled differently, they omit the name. My lord knows that Datta is spelt differently. They are issuing notice with the aim to exclude names," he told the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

A Child Marriage Mention

At one point, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, said there are cases of a 15-year age difference between parents and children. Justice Bagchi responded, "How can 15 years age gap between mother and son be a logical discrepancy? We are not in a country where child marriages are not a reality."

Among those issued notices under the 'logical discrepancy' category is economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Justice Bagchi noted that over 1 crore people were notified. "Please understand the stress people are suffering. We will issue directions where needed," he said. 

At one point, Senior Advocate Dwivedi also remarked that if the poll body cannot be trusted, the exercise must be stopped.

How Trinamool Reacted

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government has strongly opposed the SIR exercise and alleged that it is a ploy to delete the names of legitimate voters ahead of the upcoming state polls. "The factor of 'logical discrepancy' was not mentioned at the beginning of the SIR process. It was introduced later with the sole intention of deleting the names of genuine voters," Banerjee said.

Following the top court's ruling today, Banerjee's nephew and senior Trinamool leader said the "BJP's SIR game is over". "One crore names that were targeted to be struck off have been saved, and the victory belongs to the people of Bengal. Our voting rights were being threatened, but the Supreme Court has given them a firm rebuke."