IN A week since the release of the voters’ list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in West Bengal, only 6.5 lakh or 10.82% of the total 60.06 lakh names put under scrutiny for “adjudication” have been disposed of.

For the 60.06 lakh registered electors in the state, who found their names “under adjudication”, it means they are on the rolls, but will not be able to exercise their right to vote in the Assembly elections till the judicial officers, appointed on orders of the Supreme Court to review their cases, decide to keep them on the rolls in subsequent supplementary lists.

Around 700 judicial officers, including 200 from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha, have been given the responsibility to adjudicate these cases.

“Till date, not a single judicial officers has come from Jharkhand and Odisha. Only 505 judicial officers are currently involved in resolving the adjudication cases. The West Bengal government is making logistical arrangements. One hundred judicial officers, including six retired judges, will come from Jharkhand and another hundred from Odisha by Saturday,” a senior EC official said.

“So far, 6.5 lakh cases have been disposed of, and 75% have undergone preliminary scrutiny. Judicial officers are working with the EROs (Electoral Registration Officers) and AEROs (Assistant Electoral Registration Officers). The EC has also provided them with the revoke option in the application so that, in case of any mistake, they can correct it accordingly,” the senior EC official said.

Justifying the slow pace of resolving the adjudication cases, another official at the state Chief Electoral Office said: “It is not a very easy task for the judicial officers. They are not only checking the uploaded documents, but also verifying them with the physical documents provided by electors during the SIR hearings. We have found serious discrepancies between the documents uploaded on the EC app and the hard copies.”

With no stated deadline for wrapping up the whole process, electors and political parties have been mounting pressure of the EC for the early disposal of cases.

On Thursday, delegations of at least four parties, including the Left Front, the Congress, ISF, and the newly formed JUP, met CEO Manoj Agarwal separately and demanded early disposal of adjudication cases.

“Without the complete and flawless voters’ list, we will not allow Assembly elections to be held in Bengal,” said CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim.