SC sets up judicial tribunal to hear Bengal SIR appeals. india news
New Delhi: Invoking special Article 142 powers, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the setting up of a tribunal comprising retired Chief Justice and former judges of Calcutta and neighboring high courts to decide appeals against orders of judicial authorities rejecting claims for inclusion in the Bengal voter list after special intensive vetting.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi stuck to its order that no bureaucrat acting as an ERO would sit in appeals against the decisions of judicial officers drawn up to scan documents of 60 lakh voters in ‘logical anomaly’ and ‘unmapped’ category.Cal HC CJ will nominate former CJs, judges: Supreme Court The Supreme Court gave a free hand to the Calcutta HC CJ to nominate former CJs and judges and directed the EC to notify the tribunal in consultation with HC CJs and retired CJs.The CJI-led bench took exception to several applications from TMC supporters and private individuals related to the SIR work and process, rejected the applications and warned of contempt action if such attempts were made in future.The Supreme Court was also unhappy over the delay by the EC in creating secure IDs for judicial officers and said, “A situation has arrived where we have doubts about the credibility of both the state government and the EC.” It asked the Election Commission to ensure that there is no delay in making the IDs to allow judicial officers to function without any delay.The CJI said the Calcutta HC CJ had informed the Supreme Court that more than 500 judicial officers from Bengal and 200 from Jharkhand and Odisha were working seven days a week and had disposed of more than 10 lakh claim applications.At the beginning of the hearing, senior lawyer Maneka Guruswamy attempted to press for the applications in the absence of an appellate forum for voters whose claims have been rejected by the judicial authorities. The Supreme Court said, “As CJI, I will not let anyone dare to question the work of judicial officers. I am issuing a warning.”It was advocate Kalyan Banerjee who expressed the grievances and said that when 10 lakh claims have been adjudicated, why is the Election Commission not publishing the supplementary voter list, as directed by the SC, which includes the names of those whose claims have been accepted?Banerjee also said that rejection of claims should be accompanied by reasons so that the aggrieved person can appeal against it before a designated forum. The bench asked both the state government and the Election Commission to provide facilities to the judicial officers, who are acting as agents of the SC, so that they can do their work smoothly.“We have taken a lot of risk in handing over the work of SIR to the judicial officers, who are working tirelessly. But the risk is worth it because it (preparing the voter list) is very important for free and fair elections. Citizens have a constitutional right to be included in the voter list, but not infiltrators and illegal immigrants,” the CJI said.

