Kolkata, March 14 – The judicial officers involved in the process of adjudicating voters classified under the "logical discrepancy" category have been able to complete the process for 25% of the voters referred for judicial arbitration by Friday night.
Out of these, 34% of the cases for which the process of judicial adjudication has been completed have been found to be ineligible for inclusion on the voters' list.
"A total of slightly over 60 lakh cases were identified under the "logical discrepancy" category and were therefore referred for judicial adjudication. Out of these 60 lakh cases, the process of judicial adjudication has been completed for 15 lakh cases by Friday night, which is 25% of the total cases referred for judicial adjudication."
"Furthermore, out of these 15 lakh cases, slightly over five lakh cases have been identified as ineligible, which is approximately 34% of the cases for which the process of judicial adjudication has been completed so far," said an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal.
This means that the total number of excluded voters by Friday night reached 63 lakh, while 59 lakh names under the categories of "deceased", "transferred", "duplicate", and "missing" have already been excluded from the draft voters' list, which was published in December last year.
The voters who will be excluded will have the opportunity to approach the Appellate Tribunal, as per the latest order of the Supreme Court.
According to him, considering that a total of 732 judicial officers, including 100 each from neighboring Jharkhand and Odisha, are working day and night to complete the judicial process as quickly as possible, the work is progressing satisfactorily.
"It is highly likely that the first supplementary list will be announced next week," said the CEO's office insider.
Last week, the full Bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI), headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, was in Kolkata. Speaking to the media, Kumar also expressed confidence that the judicial adjudication process will be completed before the crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal later this year, and that each eligible voter will be able to cast their vote in those elections.
The final voters' list in West Bengal, excluding the 60 lakh cases referred for judicial adjudication, was published on February 28. According to the direction of the Supreme Court, supplementary lists will be published based on the progress of the judicial adjudication.