Kolkata, February 28 – As the final voter list for West Bengal, prepared as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, was published on Saturday, official statistics revealed that the maximum number of cases currently under judicial review are concentrated in three districts bordering Bangladesh – Murshidabad, Malda, and North 24 Parganas. Of these, Murshidabad and Malda are districts with a significant minority population.
The "under judicial review" category refers to cases of "logical discrepancies" that have been referred for judicial scrutiny by officers appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for this purpose.
According to data from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, out of approximately 60 lakh voter documents referred for judicial review, the highest number comes from the Murshidabad district. A total of 11,01,145 cases from Murshidabad have been referred, representing roughly 18.35 per cent of the total cases under judicial review.
In the Malda district, another district bordering Bangladesh with a significant minority population, 8,28,127 cases have been referred for judicial review. This represents approximately 13.80 per cent of the total cases under review.
In the North 24 Parganas district, which also shares a border with Bangladesh, 5,91,252 cases have been referred for judicial review, representing approximately 9.85 per cent of the total cases.
Taken together, these three districts account for nearly 42 per cent of the total "under judicial review" cases in the state.
The cases currently under judicial review are being examined by over 500 judicial officers appointed by the ECI, in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court. Depending on the progress of the review process, a supplementary list will be published in due course. Only after the completion of this exercise will the final status of the electoral rolls become clear.
The final voter list published on Saturday showed that 61,78,245 names have been deleted so far under the SIR process.
The number of deletions is expected to rise further, as the identity documents of approximately 60 lakh voters remain under judicial review.
