Apart from Mr Bengal, we have nothing to listen to, SC asked?

New Delhi: Days after criticizing the Bengal government for frequently rushing the Supreme Court to delay SIRs for the ongoing polls in the state on petitions filed by those complaining about removing their names from the electoral roll, the court found itself faced with the same issue, leading CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi to angrily ask: “Has the SC anything to hear other than WB SIRs?”Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, who appeared for the petitioners and was recently nominated as the TMC candidate in the Lok Sabha, had handled the party’s protests against the alleged unfair deletion of names during the SIR proceedings. He told the judge there was no appeal provision against the removal of names from the electoral roll, leaving many people hopeless.To scrutinize documents submitted by 50 lakh voters under the “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped” categories, the SC has ordered deployment of judicial officers in Bengal as well as Jharkhand and Odisha to expedite the SIR process.Guruswamy said the petitioners submitted necessary documents but their demands have been rejected. “Their names have appeared in the previous voters’ list and they have already voted,” she said, adding that under the Representation of the People Act, people whose names have been removed have the right to appeal against the order of the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). “However, voters whose claims have been rejected do not have access to this right as judicial officers have already conducted a review,” she said, pleading for the petition to be urgently listed for a detailed hearing.“How can we allow the bureaucrats (electoral commission representatives who carry out the mandate of the electoral rights office) to appeal against the orders passed by our judicial officers? We cannot allow this,” the bench said. However, the bench on Tuesday agreed to dispose of these petitions as well as matters related to the WB SIR.On February 27, the court told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who had appeared for the state government and objected to the training provided by the EC to judicial officers, to advise the state not to make frequent trips to the SC.It said, “Please do not come to the court with vague reasons and try to drag out the proceedings. Irrelevant reasons cannot be thrown around every day. It must end. We have exceeded our mandate (by using exclusive powers under Article 142 to direct the deployment of judicial officers for tasks that essentially fall within the domain of the EC).” You are making unnecessary complaints. “Another group of people who are seeking citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act – which grants this privilege to members of persecuted minority communities from neighboring countries who entered India before December 31, 2014 – said their petitions are pending in India’s Supreme Court and they will not be allowed to become voters in Bengal. The SC also directed that this petition be listed along with the Bangladesh SIR request.