New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday the plea filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and several Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.

As per the cause list published on the website of the apex court, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and comprising Justices R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi will take up the petitions filed by Banerjee as well as TMC MPs Dola Sen and Derek O’Brien.

In her plea, Chief Minister Banerjee has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting with political bias and alleged that the manner in which the SIR exercise is being conducted would result in the deletion of names of lakhs of voters belonging to marginalised sections of society.

She has contended that the process disproportionately affects vulnerable groups and has sought directions to ensure that genuine voters are not excluded from the electoral rolls.

During the previous hearing, the apex court had intervened to address the deadlock between the West Bengal government and the poll body over the conduct of the revision exercise and directed that judicial officers be involved in the process of deciding objections and claims filed by voters.

Taking note of the situation, the CJI Kant-led Bench had directed the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to nominate serving and some retired judicial officers of the rank of Additional District Judge (ADJ) to assist in adjudicating claims and objections filed by voters during the revision exercise.

The top court had said that the ECI officials and the West Bengal government would assist the judicial officers in carrying out the process.

The Supreme Court had also permitted judicial officers from neighbouring High Courts, including Jharkhand and Orissa, to be deputed to West Bengal to expedite the adjudication of voter claims and objections arising from the ongoing SIR exercise.

The direction came after the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court informed the apex court that nearly 80 lakh applications involving categories such as “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped voters” required adjudication, while only around 250 judicial officers were available to deal with the massive pendency.

Invoking its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the CJI Kant-led Bench had clarified that the poll body may proceed with publication of the final electoral roll even if adjudication of certain cases remains pending, adding that voters whose names are included in subsequent supplementary lists would be deemed to be part of the final electoral roll.

--IANS

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