The Election Commission of India (ECI) will publish the first supplementary list of voters by the end of this week following the ongoing judicial adjudication of names in the SIR exercise in the poll-bound state, Special Roll Observer Subrata Gupta said on Tuesday.
He shared the update after Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Sujoy Paul held a high-level meeting with top officers of the state administration, Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal and Gupta.
The meeting, which began at 5pm at the HC premises and lasted for over 1.5 hours, was attended by Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala, Home Secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh, Director General of Police (DGP) Siddh Nath Gupta, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Nand, CEO Manoj Agarwal, and Subrata Gupta.
According to sources, the meeting was regarding the adjudication cases which are being reviewed by the judicial officers.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Agarwal said, “So far, 20 lakh adjudication cases have been resolved. The supplementary list will be published soon. Many issues have been discussed in the meeting.”
According to Gupta, the first supplementary list will be published by this Friday or Saturday.
Speaking to the media, Gupta said, “The first supplementary list will be published on Friday or Saturday. The adjudication process is ongoing in compliance with the Supreme Court directives. The formation of tribunals to hear appeals against exclusion of names from the voter list was also discussed. The Chief Justice of Calcutta HC will inform us about the names of the former judges for the tribunals and we will proceed accordingly.”
West Bengal will go to polls in two phases: on April 23 and April 29, and counting of votes is on May 4.
However, the ECI has not given any clarity yet on the fate of over 60 lakh voters in the “under adjudication” category.
Section 23(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, prohibits any change to the electoral roll of a poll-bound place after the last date of nominations.
So far, 705 judicial officers, including 100 each from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha, have been engaged in the adjudication process in Bengal. In the voter list on February 28, more than 60 lakh names were placed under adjudication and 1.9 lakh new voters added, taking the state’s voter count to 6.44 crore.