New Delhi, April 16 (NationPress) The Supreme Court has emphasized that individuals who were removed from the updated electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in election-ready West Bengal will gain the right to vote only if their appeals are approved by the Appellate Tribunals prior to the designated cut-off dates.

In a decisive ruling, the Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant stated that just having an appeal pending will not grant voting rights. If the Appellate Tribunals permit an appeal and mandate inclusion in the electoral roll, such directives must be enforced before voting through a supplementary revised electoral roll.

“It is clear that… if an appeal is sanctioned by the Appellate Tribunal and a definitive order for inclusion or exclusion is issued, those directives must be duly executed before the West Bengal elections commence,” the apex court articulated in its ruling delivered on Monday.

Utilizing powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the CJI Kant-led Bench instructed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to implement appellate decisions by issuing supplementary revised electoral rolls wherever appeals are resolved by April 21 or April 27, contingent on the relevant polling phase.

“All necessary consequences regarding the right to vote shall ensue,” the Supreme Court affirmed. However, it made it explicitly clear that individuals excluded and whose appeals are still pending before the Appellate Tribunals cannot claim voting rights solely on that basis.

“It is self-evident that the mere pendency of appeals filed by excluded individuals before the Appellate Tribunals shall not confer upon them the right to vote,” the CJI Kant-led Bench remarked.

The court's remarks were made in response to a series of petitions from individuals whose names had been removed from the electoral rolls, seeking interim restoration of their names while their appeals were under consideration.

Rejecting the requests, the apex court noted that once the judicial officers tasked with the SIR verification process determined these individuals to be ineligible, the initial presumption regarding their inclusion in the electoral roll was effectively nullified.

“In our assessment, the requests… contradict the framework established by this Court, as upon verification by the Judicial Officers… the petitioners have been assessed as not credible,” the CJI Kant-led Bench stated.

The order also noted that over 34 lakh appeals have been filed with the Appellate Tribunals, including claims of wrongful exclusion and objections contesting new inclusions in the updated voter list.

The court cautioned that permitting excluded individuals to vote merely on the basis of pending appeals could lead to an irregular situation, where objectors might similarly seek to disenfranchise individuals whose names remain on the rolls despite pending disputes.

“This would effectively recreate the very circumstances that existed prior to the allocation of the verification task to the Judicial Officers,” the court stated.

Furthermore, it was noted that all 19 Appellate Tribunals, established in accordance with previous directives from the court, are currently operational and adhering to a Standard Operating Procedure developed by a committee of former judges.

Previously, the Supreme Court had mandated the formation of Appellate Tribunals, comprising former High Court Chief Justices and judges, to address appeals regarding exclusions from electoral rolls during the SIR process, affirming that decisions made by judicial officers during the revision could not be contested before executive or administrative bodies.

The ongoing batch of petitions challenging the SIR process in West Bengal is scheduled for further deliberation on April 24.