New Delhi, May 11 — The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Trinamool Congress to file a separate application regarding its claim that deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls materially affected results in several West Bengal assembly constituencies.
The submissions were made before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi during a hearing on issues linked to voter deletions and pending appeals arising from the SIR process.
Senior advocate and TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee told the court that in 31 assembly constituencies, the BJP’s winning margin over the TMC was lower than the number of voters deleted during the adjudication process.
“In many cases, the deletions and the loss margin were almost the same,” Banerjee submitted, according to LiveLaw.
He cited one constituency where a candidate allegedly lost by 862 votes while more than 5,432 names were removed from the electoral rolls for adjudication.
Banerjee further claimed that the overall vote gap between the TMC and the BJP stood at nearly 32 lakh votes, while around 35 lakh appeals related to voter deletions remained pending before appellate tribunals.
Referring to an earlier observation by Justice Bagchi, Banerjee argued that cases where the victory margin was lower than the number of deleted voters warranted judicial scrutiny.
The Election Commission opposed the submissions and argued that disputes concerning election outcomes could only be addressed through election petitions.
The poll panel maintained that the appropriate legal remedy for grievances linked to the SIR process and subsequent addition or deletion of votes was already available under election law.
Responding to the submissions, Justice Bagchi said any allegation that election results were materially affected due to deletions under adjudication would require a separate plea before the court.
“Whatever you want to say about results... which may have materially affected because of deletions which are under adjudication... that requires an independent Interlocutory Application,” Justice Bagchi observed.
The bench said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others were free to move fresh applications raising such claims.
Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy also informed the court that, at the current pace, appellate tribunals may take nearly four years to dispose of the pending appeals.
The Chief Justice said the priority of the court would be to ensure expeditious disposal of the appeals.