The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Election Commission on fresh interim pleas of Trinamool Congress MPs alleging arbitrariness and procedural irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of applications filed by lawmakers Derek O Brien and Dola Sen in their pending petitions challenging the procedural actions taken in the ongoing SIR in the state.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Derek O Brien, said the EC’s instructions on the SIR are being issued through social media platforms like WhatsApp and made booth-level officers (BLOs) act without any formal orders.
Sibal also said the poll panel has introduced a ‘logical discrepancy’ category of voters, who may be issued notice for a quasi-judicial hearing on their eligibility over errors or anomalies in the voter details.
The counsel representing the poll panel sought two weeks to file the replies to the pleas.