SC To Hear Plea Challenging Freeze Of Electoral Rolls In West Bengal On April 13

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to examine a fresh petition along with other pending cases against the Election Commission’s move to freeze electoral rolls before the West Bengal assembly elections.

According to PTI, the poll panel had frozen and finalised the electoral rolls on April 9 for the assembly seats going to polls in the first stage.

Assembly elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, with votes to be counted for all polls on May 4.

The freezing of electoral rolls means that no new person who has been deleted can be added to the voters’ list for these assembly polls.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was urged by a lawyer to take up the plea against the freezing on an urgent basis.

The lawyer said many appeals against deletions from the electoral rolls are still pending and the poll panel has frozen the rolls on April 9.

“We will consider the petition on April 13,” the CJI said.

Senior advocate D S Naidu, appearing for the poll panel, said the freezing date was April 9 and after that none will be considered.

“Right to vote remains, these appellants are similarly situated like others whose appeals were allowed,” Naidu said.

“What was the architecture …we are thinking. There is a cut-off line with respect to an election, and underlying is a constitutional right to be on the electoral roll and to vote in further elections. That is much higher and permanent,” Justice Bagchi said.

The CJI said the person is not being deprived permanently.

PTI reported that on April 6, the bench noted that around 60 lakh claims and objections of those removed from voters’ lists in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal have been decided.

It had asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to constitute a three-member panel of former senior judges to frame uniform procedures for 19 tribunals for deciding appeals against deletions from the electoral rolls.

According to PTI, the Supreme Court will take up the challenge to the freezing of electoral rolls along with other pending petitions on April 13.

(With inputs from PTI)