New Delhi: Supreme Court on Tuesday strictly warned the West Bengal government, the Election Commission of India (ECI), and individual petitioners against "doubting" judicial officers appointed to verify the deleted voters from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said court-appointed judicial officers working on appeals from voters whose names were deleted from electoral rolls were already working overtime and should not be undermined.
"Don't even dare to question the Judicial Officers!...What more sacrifice do you want from them? They are working overtime to hear the cases of deleted voters from West Bengal! I will not tolerate this!" the Chief Justice lambasted petitioners during the hearing.
The court also directed the Election Commission to address issues flagged by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in relation to the revision process.
Coming down heavily on a fresh application that raised questions on the decisions of court-appointed judicial officers, Chief Justice Surya Kant made it clear that their decisions must be respected.
The Supreme Court also directed the Election Commission and the Mamata Banerjee government to ensure adequate assistance and logistical support to the judicial officers handling the appeals.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice expressed concern about the conduct of both sides in the litigation. "We are doubting the bona fides of both sides," he said, asking the parties to clarify who had filed the fresh plea questioning the judicial officers.
The court's sharp observations came after Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy and Trinamool Congress MP-lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for the petitioners, said they had no knowledge of any fresh petition raising such questions.
In a fresh order, the top court today directed that Appellate Tribunals comprising former High Court Chief Justices and former High Court Judges be constituted to hear appeals against exclusions in the West Bengal Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, after concerns were raised about the absence of an independent appellate mechanism. Voters rejected by judicial officers can appeal to this tribunal.
This follows the earlier directions of the Court, as per which Judicial Officers, from Bengal and neighbouring states of Orissa and Jharkhand, were deployed to adjudicate SIR claims, in view of the blame-game between the State and the Election Commission of India.
This direction came after senior counsel appearing for the petitioners flagged the absence of a mechanism of appeal available to persons whose claims are rejected by the Judicial Officers (JOs) during the revision process.
The Court clarified that orders passed by the Judicial Officers would not be subject to appeal before any executive or administrative forum.
In view of this, the Court observed that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court may request some former Chief Justices and two or three former High Court Judges, preferably from the Calcutta High Court or neighbouring States, to serve as members of the appellate tribunals.
Once their names are recommended, the ECI may notify them as Appellate Tribunals to hear appeals arising from the SIR process.
The Court left it to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to decide how many members should be on the Appellate Tribunal Benches.
The Court further requested the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to fix the honorarium payable to the former Chief Justices or judges who agree to serve on the tribunals. The honorarium may be determined in consultation with the Election Commission of India, which will bear the entire expense.
The petitioners have also said that publication of supplementary lists of persons whose objections have already been disposed of, particularly in view of the large number of objections, reportedly exceeding ten lakhs. Addressing the concerns over the publication of supplementary lists of persons whose objections have already been disposed of, the Court granted liberty to both sides to approach the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
