KOLKATA: The much-publicised release of the first supplementary list of around 29 lakh voters, including around 10 lakh who have unofficially lost their voting rights after thorough verifications of their documents by judicial officers, could not be published by the Election Commission of India till 10 pm on Monday.
Sources in the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that the Calcutta High Court has been monitoring the issue related to the 60 lakh voters marked as ‘under adjudication’ in West Bengal following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. They are awaiting clearance from judicial officers to retain their voting rights. “The Commission will publish the first supplementary list as soon as it comes from the High Court,” ECI sources said around 10.30 pm.
“The list with information related to numbers of eligible and ineligible voters comes from the High Court. We will follow the guidelines of the court,” Manoj Agarwal, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer, told media.
The list will have two categories -- eligible and ineligible voters. The ECI on 28 February had published the final list of electoral rolls post- SIR in West Bengal deleting around 64 lakh absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) voters and categorising another 60 lakh in ‘logical discrepancy’ and ‘unmapped’ groups respectively.
Following directives of the Supreme Court, the 60 lakh electors belonging to the two categories were marked as ‘under adjudication’, awaiting clearance from a team of more than 700 judicial officers who are examining their documents under direct monitoring of the High Court.
This evening, the national poll body was scheduled to release the first supplementary list of around 29 lakh out of the 60 lakh adjudicated voters clearly identifying the numbers of eligible and non-eligible voters separately across the state.
The list was supposed to be available only on the official website of the ECI. The print copy of the list will be available at the office of the district magistrates and polling booths across the state from Tuesday.
The ECI on Friday set up 19 appellate tribunals for hearing appeals against the orders passed by judicial officers who are currently deciding on the eligibility of 60.06 lakh electors excluded from the final list published after the special intensive revisions (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
Questions have been raised on whether the judicial officers’ scrutiny of the over 60 lakh voters ‘under adjudication’ and the subsequent appeals process will be completed before the state goes to the polls on April 23 and 29.
The first list of 29 lakh of the 60 lakh cases got delayed as the digital e-sign process of these cases could not be completed by judges till this evening, said sources in the CEO office requesting anonymity.
The sources also said that the office of the state CEO refers the cases cleared by judicial officers to the Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi after digital e-sign is done for the ECI’s clearance. After that, the supplementary list is generated in the ECI software system, they added.