Election Commission Defends Handling of West Bengal's SIR, Seeks Increase in Appellate Tribunals

The Election Commission, in its reply to the Supreme Court on the West Bengal SIR, has defended the disposal of appeals, deletion of names, re-addition of names, and the alleged impact of the SIR on election results. The Election Commission, in its affidavit, has asked the Supreme Court to increase the number of existing 19 appellate tribunals in West Bengal for early disposal of appeals related to the SIR. The Commission has suggested that one tribunal be set up for each Lok Sabha constituency. West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats, so pending cases can be expedited if there are a total of 42 tribunals. So far, about 3.83 million appeals have been filed before the tribunals related to the SIR. But only about 1.25 million appeals have been disposed of. The appeals filed include not only appeals of deleted voters, but also cases in which objections have been raised against the inclusion of another person's name in the electoral rolls. The Supreme Court records also state that there were more than 22 lakh appeals against the exclusion.