Plea to retired high court judges for flexibility in accepting any documents voters produce
Telegraph | 4 April 2026
A group advocating for voters struck off the electoral rolls urged tribunals of retired high court judges to consider any documents voters can produce, instead of only those specified by the Election Commission.
The EC had listed 13 documents that voters could submit during SIR hearings.
Saifulla, a professor of Bengali at Aliah University and member of the Vote Adhikar Raksha Mancha, said thousands of people in the state do not own land, have no jobs, never studied and lack birth certificates. “How does the EC expect them to produce the documents it demands? We appeal to the judges on the tribunals to allow these poor and hapless voters to show whatever documents they have in their possession,” he said.
Mancha members pointed out that it was unfair to ask for passports or school pass certificates from such individuals.
“The tribunals should decide on their appeals after examining the documents they possess. They should also allow the submission of fresh documents, not just the ones submitted earlier,” Saifulla added.
Saifulla was under adjudication when the post-SIR rolls were published on February 28; his name appeared later in a supplementary list, and he is now on the voter rolls.
The group has also called on the EC to release a standard operating procedure for tribunals, specifying when and where hearings will be held and providing deadlines for their resolution. “I appeal to the judges to sit in respective districts so that people don’t have to travel to Calcutta to present their case,” said a member.
During a hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court stated that the tribunals were free to decide their own procedures. “The Appellate Tribunals are free to evolve their own procedures in accordance with the principles of natural justice, and are requested to adjudicate the appeals after providing the parties with a fair opportunity of being heard,” the written order said. The order also noted that “the Appellate Tribunals shall function at Calcutta”.
A sit-in, organised by the Mancha at Park Circus Maidan to raise the plight of lakhs of under-adjudication voters, completed a month on Friday.
“We want to make it clear that we are raising objections about the failings of the EC, but we are in no way asking anyone not to have faith in the institution. We want people to take the legal course laid down by law,” Saifulla said.