The Supreme Court has given a big order regarding the West Bengal elections. The court has said that those whose names are cleared by the SIR Appellate Tribunal before the elections in the state, will be able to cast their votes. Supplementary voter list will be released on the basis of disposal of appeals till 21st April for the first phase of voting and 27th April for the second phase. Those whose appeal is pending before the tribunal will not be able to get the right to vote this time.
Voting for West Bengal Assembly is to be held in 2 phases. These dates are 23rd April and 29th April. On the orders of the Supreme Court, the claims related to SIR were considered by the judicial officers i.e. the judges of the lower court. Despite this, lakhs of people failed to get a place in the voter list. Now, on the orders of the Supreme Court, 19 tribunals headed by retired judges of Calcutta High Court are hearing the appeals.
As per the rules, the Election Commission had frozen the voter list on April 9. Trinamool Congress had told the Supreme Court that in this way lakhs of people will be deprived of voting. The party had demanded that those whose names the Appellate Tribunal finds correct, should be given a chance to vote. On April 13, Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard the case. Now the written order of the court has come.
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The Supreme Court has given this order using the special power acquired under Article 142 of the Constitution. The Election Commission has been instructed that the orders related to the appeals which are decided by the ‘Appeal Tribunal’ by 21st April or 27th April, should be implemented in this election itself. If a person’s appeal is accepted, the Election Commission will have to give him the right to vote by including him in the supplementary voter list.
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The court has made it clear that if a person’s name is out of the list and his appeal is pending, then he will not get the right to vote this time. The court has said that if voting is allowed on the basis of pending appeals, then the same uncertain situation will arise as it was before the investigation was started by the judicial authorities. In its order, the Supreme Court has praised the judicial officers of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha who completed the work related to SIR in a very short time and under difficult circumstances.