The bustling corridors of Alipore court in Kolkata wore a deserted look on Thursday as 10 out of 12 judges were deployed for adjudication of claims and objections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal.
“Three courtrooms are hearing bail petitions, and only they are crowded,” said Supriya Samanta, a lawyer at Alipore court.
Another advocate Anirban Guhathakurda said, “Except urgent bail applications and custodian trial matters, all other work has been stalled as more judicial officers were roped in for the SIR process.”
According to sources, out of 10 judicial magistrates, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate and one Chief Judicial Magistrate deputed in Alipore court, only two judges are there for their regular duties.
The district courts, too, bore the brunt of the temporary judicial reassignment.
According to sources, matters have been piling up in Barasat District and Sessions Court as out of 28 judges, a significant chunk was deputed for SIR work.
For the litigants, who travelled long distances, the anxiety was palpable, as many of them were seen waiting outside the courtrooms with no clarity on hearing dates.
“I have a hearing over a domestic dispute case. My lawyer told me that he has no idea on the next date of hearing as many judges have been deployed for SIR work. In any case, cease-works and strikes drag a matter to 10 years, and now my case would take double the time,” said Alok Tarafdar, a litigant.
Speaking to The Indian Express, advocate Alok Samajpaty, secretary of the District Bar Association said, “A significant number of judges have been appointed for the SIR process. The system is beginning to collapse due to their absence. The court premises are swarming with litigants but the advocates have nothing to do.”
“Every court has a certain capacity. At the most, they can hear 30-40 cases a day. In this situation, the courts that are functional, have to hear 500 cases each day. This is impossible,” he added.
According to sources, the district and sessions judges were trained on the SIR work on Wednesday, but they are yet to get a notice on when to begin the vetting process. They also added that servers were down for two hours on Wednesday, further aggravating their plight.
Meanwhile, sources at Bidhannagar ACJM court said out of four courts, three were functional.
Advocate Soumyajit Raha of Bidhannagar Court said, “While we respect the Supreme Court’s mandate regarding the SIR as a crucial measure for electoral transparency, the temporary reassignment of judicial officers has understandably slowed the pace of regular court proceedings. We expect a swift conclusion to these duties, allowing the subordinate judiciary to resume its primary focus on resolving the state’s significant case pendency.”
At present, trial courts in West Bengal have 38,79,176 pending cases, the majority of them, 32,39,515, being criminal cases, while the rest are civil.
Noting the “trust deficit” between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Supreme Court last week had issued an “extraordinary” direction for deployment of serving and former district judges for vetting claims and objections in the ongoing SIR exercise.
Following a high-level meeting, Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Sujoy Pal, in a letter to the top court, informed that 250 judicial officers have been tasked to scrutinise about 45 lakh voter rolls which are under scanner for “logical discrepancies”.
Apart from the initial 250 judicial officers, another list was issued, comprising judicial magistrates and civil judges, who are soon to join the SIR work.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the deployment of judicial officers from neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand to adjudicate the SIR hearing in the state.
According to sources, apart from 270 judicial officers who are already deputed for the SIR process, 260 more from West Bengal, and almost 200 more from Odisha and Jharkhand will be deployed.
After the first meeting on Saturday, a notice was issued by the Registrar of Judicial Services, mandating all judicial officers to refrain from taking any leave till March 9 and those on leave to join back by February 23. The Calcutta High Court also mandated the judicial officers to refrain from taking any transit leave during this period. The notice further said all training programs even which are outside the state stand cancelled.
The Chief Justice of Calcutta HC had also constituted a committee in each district for the smooth compliance of the SC order.
Kolkata: Nearly 200 judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha are likely to come to West Bengal soon for the ongoing SIR exercise, special rolls observer of the Election Commission, Subrata Gupta, said on Thursday.
Gupta said the poll panel will shortly be informed about the joining of the officers, following the Supreme Court’s suggestion to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul.“We will make all arrangements for the training of the judicial officers for the exercise,” Gupta said. The Supreme Court on February 24 permitted the Calcutta HC to requisition judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha. PTI