SC sets up judicial tribunal to hear Bangladesh SIR appeal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, exercising its exclusive powers under Article 142, ordered the setting up of a tribunal comprising retired chief justices and former judges of Kolkata and adjoining district courts to decide appeals against judicial officers’ orders rejecting the demand for inclusion in the Bengal electorate list after special intensive revision.CJI Surya Kant and Justices R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi stood by their order that no bureaucrat serving as an ERO can appeal against the judicial officer’s verdict of scanning 60-lakh voter files for “logical discrepancies” and “unmapped” categories.California HC CJ Nominated Former CJ, Judge: SC The SC allowed the Kolkata HC chief justice to nominate the former chief justice and judges and directed the EC to inform the tribunal after consulting with the HC chief justice and retired chief judge.Taking exception to numerous petitions filed by TMC supporters and private persons related to the SIR working and process, the CJI-led bench dismissed the petitions and warned of contempt action if such attempts were made in future.The SC was unhappy with the EC’s delay in creating secure identity cards for judicial officers and said: “We have reached a stage where we have doubts about the sincerity of the state governments and the EC.” It asked the EC to ensure immediate creation of identity cards for judicial officers so that they can work immediately.The CJI said the Kolkata HC CJ had informed the SC that more than 500 judicial officers from Bengal and 200 judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha were working seven days a week and processing over 10 lakh claims.At the beginning of the hearing, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy sought to press for the application without providing an appeal forum for those voters whose claims have been dismissed by judicial officers. The SC said, “As CJI, I will not allow anyone to dare to question the work of judicial officers. I issue a warning.”Advocate Kalyan Banerjee expressed dissatisfaction and said when the claim of 10 lakh has already been decided, why did the Election Commission not follow the SC’s instructions and issue a supplementary voters’ list containing the names of those whose claims had been accepted?Banerjee also said rejection of claims must be accompanied by reasons to enable the victim to appeal in a designated forum. The bench told the state government and the Election Commission to facilitate the smooth performance of work by judicial officers acting as agents of the SC.“We have taken a big risk by allocating the work of SIR to judicial officers who work tirelessly. But the risk is worth it as it (preparation of electoral list) is very important for free and fair elections. The Constitution provides that citizens have the right to be included in the electoral list but intruders and illegal immigrants have no right,” the CJI said.