200 judicial officers from J'khand, Odisha will come to Bengal for electoral rolls revision

Kolkata, Feb 25 (PTI) 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 told reporters after attending a stock-taking meeting convened by Chief Justice Paul.

According to the Supreme Court directive, judicial officers from West Bengal’s lower courts have been deputed to adjudicate claims and objections of persons listed under logical discrepancies, whose names are at risk of removal from the electoral rolls.

The Supreme Court on February 24 permitted the Calcutta HC chief justice to deploy civil judges and also requisition judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha to deal with 80 lakh claims and objections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

The top court took note of a letter from the chief justice stating that 250 district judges currently deployed in the SIR exercise would require around 80 days to complete the work, and allowed deployment of additional officers.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal said the adjudication work was proceeding smoothly, apart from a few glitches, which he said are "teething problems".

He said that around 270 judicial officers have already taken up the work, while another 200 lower court judges, who are to come from the neighbouring states, will join soon.

"Necessary infrastructure facilities are being put in place for them," Agarwal said.

Logical discrepancies include mismatches in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list, such as inconsistencies in parents’ names or cases where the age difference between a voter and their parent is less than 15 years or more than 50 years. PTI AMR MNB