Former Calcutta High Court judge Sahidullah Munshi said on Thursday that his name has been deleted from the voters’ list following the adjudication process after the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. Former Justice Munshi, currently serving as the chairperson of the Board of Auqaf West Bengal, is now waiting to appeal before an appellate tribunal.
The Election Commission (EC) published the first supplementary voters’ list after the SIR adjudications in West Bengal on March 23. The list contained the names of voters whose cases have been adjudicated by the judicial officers in accordance with Supreme Court directives.
The names of the former judge’s wife, Sahana, and elder son, Iftekar, are still under adjudication, while his younger son, Ibtehaj, has applied as a new voter. “Till now, only my name has been deleted. My wife and elder son are still on the adjudication list. It is very humiliating and painful…a lot of harassment. The unfortunate part is that they took the documents and said they would upload them, but no receipt was given,” former Justice Munshi told The Indian Express.
The former judge expressed surprise at his name being struck off, saying that he had submitted all required documents, including passports. “I do not know how they have adjudicated and how they have deleted. We were kept in the dark. Had we been informed that more documents were required, we could have submitted them. There was a list of documents, and any one should have been sufficient,” he added.
Born in September 1958, he enrolled as an advocate in the Calcutta High Court in 1986 and practised for 27 years. He was elevated to the bench as an additional judge in October 2013, appointed as a permanent judge in March 2016, and retired in September 2020.
Former Justice Munshi pointed out that before becoming a judge, he had already submitted documents as part of the appointment process. “Apart from my documents, they conduct an internal enquiry. Only after scrutiny is the name approved by the Collegium. Then the President appoints you, and you take oath on the Constitution,” he said.
Saying that he did not believe his name was deleted deliberately, he said the adjudication process was “mechanical”. “Nobody is applying their mind. Sixty lakh (voters) need to be adjudicated in a short span…anyone can guess what will happen. The officers doing it are doing so mechanically, not judicially,” he added.
The former judge said that he and his wife voted in the Bowbazar constituency. “Now, we have shifted to Entally…I do not understand how they have calculated…it was pure imagination,” he said.
Former Justice Munshi added that he is waiting for the official reason for his name being struck off before filing an appeal. “Unless I get the reason, I cannot present the appeal. Nothing has been declared yet about how the appeal is to be preferred or its format. Once I get it, I will lodge my appeal,” he said.
The EC has formed 19 appellate tribunals in West Bengal to hear disputed case appeals rejected by the judicial officers disposing of the 60 lakh under-adjudication cases following the SIR. The single-member tribunals led by former judges have been formed for 23 districts.
West Bengal is heading to polls on April 23 and 29, with counting on May 4.