NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday rapped the West Bengal govt for dashing to court docket now and again with “vague and irrelevant” causes to delay the completion of the Special Intensive Revision of state electoral rolls, to expedite which the SC has deployed judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha.“Please do not come to the court with vague reasons and try to delay the process. Every day there cannot be an irrelevant reason here and there. There must be an end to it. We went beyond our mandate (by using exclusive powers under Article 142 to direct deployment of judicial officers to carry out a task which is essentially in the EC domain). You are making unnecessary complaints,” CJI Surya Kant mentioned.The comment got here after Kapil Sibal levelled the intense cost earlier than the CJI and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that “strange things have happened. EC officials are giving training to judicial officers, who were deployed by the Calcutta HC CJ, on which documents submitted with claims of voters are to be accepted.”Sibal mentioned it marked a violation of the SC’s route that the modalities could be determined by the chief justice of Calcutta HC. The bench, nevertheless, disliked the problems referring to SIR being raked up now and again by the Bengal govt for one or the opposite purpose.“When we said the HC CJ will decide the modalities, we meant he would decide which judicial officer is to be deployed where and what facilities were to be provided to him. The judicial officer alone will decide the pending claims and validity of documents submitted by the voters,” mentioned the bench, disagreeing with Sibal’s cost concerning the EC disregarding the SC. Justice Bagchi mentioned, “If the EC officials will not give training to judicial officers, who else will. Our order is as clear as daylight. We gave an alien responsibility to the judicial officers to expedite SIR. Both the state govt and the EC must provide and create a congenial atmosphere for them to work.”Finding the state on the receiving finish, Sibal mentioned “the state chief secretary is here as unfortunately her voting rights are being put to question by the EC”. The bench mentioned, “Ask your chief secretary to work in tandem with the EC and judicial officers for expeditious completion of SIR.”Sibal turned to a different side and mentioned the EC should publish the supplementary voter lists after the publication of the ultimate voter listing on Feb 28, as and when a cluster of voters’ names had been determined by the judicial officers for inclusion within the voter listing.The bench mentioned SIR could be carried out strictly in accordance with court docket’s orders, which additionally specify which paperwork to be accepted for scrutiny of claims.
