Supreme Court Says Mamata Banerjee, Others May File Fresh Pleas on Vote Deletions and Victory Margins

New Delhi, May 11: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others may file fresh applications regarding their claim that the victory margins in several constituencies during the recent West Bengal Assembly elections were lower than the number of votes deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made the observation while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the SIR exercise conducted in the state.

The issue was raised by senior advocate and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee, who referred to an earlier observation by Justice Bagchi that the court could examine grievances in cases where the margin of victory was less than the number of voters removed from electoral rolls during the revision process.

Banerjee informed the court that there were 31 constituencies where such a situation had allegedly occurred.

“One of my candidates lost by 862 votes and, interestingly, 5,550 votes were deleted during the SIR from that constituency,” Banerjee submitted before the bench.

Responding to the submission, Justice Bagchi said, “Whatever you want to say about results, about deletions, etc., this requires an independent interim application (IA).”

The Election Commission, represented by senior advocate D.S. Naidu, opposed the submissions and argued that any challenge relating to election results should be pursued through an election petition.

Naidu maintained that the Election Commission could only be held accountable regarding the conduct of the SIR exercise and appeals connected to the addition or deletion of names from electoral rolls.

Justice Bagchi clarified that the Election Commission’s objection regarding maintainability could be addressed in its counter-affidavit once such applications are filed.

During the hearing, Kalyan Banerjee also referred to the resignation of former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam from the SIR Appellate Tribunal. The tribunal was constituted to hear appeals filed by persons whose names were deleted from the voter lists and cross-appeals by the Election Commission against alleged wrongful inclusions.

Justice Sivagnanam was among 19 retired judges and former chief justices appointed by the Calcutta High Court to adjudicate appeals arising out of the SIR process.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for one of the petitioners, expressed concern that the appellate tribunals could take nearly four years to decide the pending appeals.

The Chief Justice said the court would examine whether improvements could be made to ensure faster adjudication of such cases.

The Supreme Court was informed that nearly 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand had been deployed to deal with approximately 60 lakh claims and objections arising from the electoral roll revision exercise.

Earlier, the apex court had directed the Calcutta High Court to establish multiple tribunals to hear appeals against deletions from voter lists.

Justice Bagchi had previously remarked that the bench would later examine the “more valuable right” of citizens to remain on the electoral rolls.

In the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, while the Trinamool Congress secured 80 seats after ruling the state for 15 years. The elections recorded a voter turnout of over 90 per cent.