Kolkata, February 26 – The Calcutta High Court on Thursday requested 200 judicial officers – 100 each from the High Courts of Odisha and Jharkhand – to join the team of judicial officers already appointed for adjudicating voter documents identified under the “logical discrepancy” category.
The decision to seek these 200 judicial officers from neighboring states was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul.
The meeting was attended by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal; West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty; Acting Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey; Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar; and Special Roll Observer for West Bengal Subrata Gupta.
It may be recalled that a division bench of the Supreme Court, on February 24, permitted judicial officers from the neighboring High Courts of Jharkhand and Odisha to be deputed to West Bengal to expedite the adjudication of voter claims and objections arising from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.
At the meeting held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice, it was decided that the final number of “logical discrepancy” cases, as determined at midnight on February 21, would be treated as the final figure for adjudication purposes.
Already, 532 judicial officers from different courts in West Bengal have been appointed for adjudicating voter documents, and out of them, 273 judicial officers are currently engaged in the adjudication process.
With the addition of 200 more judicial officers from the High Courts of Odisha and Jharkhand, the adjudication process relating to voter documents is expected to gain further momentum.
The final voter list in West Bengal, excluding those “logical discrepancy” cases that have been referred for judicial adjudication, will be published, while supplementary lists will be issued in due course depending on the progress of the adjudication process.
The judicial officers are submitting daily reports on the progress of adjudication work to the Calcutta High Court to ensure timely completion of the process.
