A fresh political storm erupted in Bengal on Tuesday after the Supreme Court ordered engaging judicial officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha to speed up the settlement of voter claims and objections arising out of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the poll rolls.
While the ruling Trinamool Congress hailed the order as a victory for Bengal’s people, the BJP accused the state government of deliberately stalling the exercise.
The development has further deepened the confrontation between the ruling party and the Opposition over the integrity and intent of the poll roll revision process.
The Supreme Court order came amid a massive backlog of disputes linked to the SIR exercise.
At least 60 lakh cases are still pending with judicial officers, prompting the apex court to state that the Election Commission, if required, may appoint judicial officers from neighbouring states to speed up the process.
With the publication of the revised voter list scheduled for February 28, the apex court observed that additional manpower might be necessary to meet the deadline.
Trinamool also described the apex court’s intervention as a reflection of administrative failure on the part of the EC in Bengal.
“In an unprecedented move today, the Supreme Court was compelled to permit the deployment of judges from neighbouring states to address the massive bottleneck created by the Election Commission’s sheer incompetence and administrative failure. This intervention itself speaks volumes,” the Trinamool said in an official statement issued shortly after the order surfaced.
The party argued that the need to bring in judges from outside the state underscored a collapse of the EC’s institutional credibility.
On X, Trinamool wrote: “The ECI is so discredited, so incompetent, so distrusted that the Supreme Court is forced to import judges from other states to finish what was supposed to be their sacred constitutional job.”
The party alleged that the SIR exercise had been aimed at selective intimidation and harassment of Bengal’s voters.
Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose termed the Supreme Court order as a decisive moment for Bengal.
“A big win for Bengal at the Supreme Court today and another big setback for the extremely compromised Election Commission. The EC has ensured that the entire SIR exercise has been taken out of the discretion and overall supervision of the Election Commission. Yet another slap on the face of the Election Commission,” she said.
In sharp contrast, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party called the Supreme Court order a matter of embarrassment for the state government.
BJP leaders argued the need for repeated judicial intervention reflected “non-cooperation” by ruling Trinamool and its “attempts” to create hurdles in the revision process.
Bengal BJP chief and Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya said the order reaffirmed that the SIR exercise could not proceed smoothly without court scrutiny.
“The apex court’s order has once again proved that without the court’s intervention at every stage, the smooth completion of the SIR exercise would never be possible in Bengal,” he said.
Drawing comparisons, Bhattacharya claimed that similar exercises elsewhere in the country had been completed without controversy.
“The parallel SIR exercise has been conducted in several other states and Union Territories. But Bengal has been the only state with such constant controversies and disruptions. This is because neither the state government nor the ruling party wants the exercise to be smoothly concluded. This was evident from the apex court’s orders earlier, and today the same thing has again been established,” Bhattacharya said.
The controversy also drew criticism from the Left. Senior CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty termed the Supreme Court order a troubling sign for democratic institutions and warned against what he called excessive judicial involvement in executive functions.
Arguing that frequent court interventions in electoral processes could set unsettling precedents, Chakraborty said: “Today’s order proved that the Election Commission tried to finish the SIR exercise hurriedly, with an aim to exclude names of voters. The apex court’s order has unsettled the democratic set-up of the country. The constant interference of the court is creating judicial precedents... it is weakening the foundation of democracy.”