A total of 505 judicial officers disposed of more than 7 lakh cases of logical discrepancies till Friday, prompting indications that clearing all 60.06 lakh cases under adjudication before the Assembly polls are announced would be a tough task.
"Even if 200 more judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand start working from early next week, it is difficult to clear all 60.06 lakh cases under adjudication and add the names of eligible voters to the electoral roll before the last date to file nominations," said a source on the Election Commission.
“The judicial officers started to dispose of cases under adjudication on February 25. Initially, the disposal rate was slow, but later on, the process gathered momentum and right now, each judicial officer is clearing around 200 cases a day,” added the source.
Sources in the EC said if the exercise continued at the existing pace, about 9 lakh cases could be disposed of by Sunday. And from Monday, 200 more judicial officers will start disposing of cases, taking the total number of judicial officers to 705.
“If 705 judicial officers continue to dispose of 200 cases each day, it would take about 36 days to clear the remaining 51 lakh cases. In that case, all the cases under adjudication could be disposed of by mid-April, and that would be too late to include all the eligible cases in the rolls,” said the source in the EC.
Another official explained why he thought it would be difficult to enrol all eligible voters so that they could exercise their franchise in the polls.
“According to the standard practice, there should be a gap of 18 days from the last date of nomination and the poll date. Voters can be included in the rolls till the last date of nomination. If the last date of nomination is scheduled after April 14, the earliest date on which the election could be held is May 2. In that case, formation of a new government is almost impossible before May 7, when the tenure of the existing government would come to an end,” said the official.
Sources said as elections could be held in two to three phases, given the availability of central forces, it would require a period of 10-15 days to hold elections and declare the results. In that case, the last date of nomination could be scheduled for early April.
“In that case, another 30 lakh cases could be disposed of till the last week of March. It remains to be seen what will happen to the over 20 lakh cases that are unlikely to be disposed of within the time-frame,” said a source.
Sources on the poll panel said the way things were moving, it appeared that poll dates could be notified by mid-March and the candidates could file nominations by the first week of April.
“The full bench of the EC would visit the state between March 8 and 10, and it is assumed that the poll panel could formally announce the dates for five states, including Bengal, by March 15. As there should be a clear gap of 14 days between the date of notification for polls and the last date of nomination, it is considered that the last date of nomination could be sometime between March-end and the first week of April,” said a source.
Sources also said that it was still not clear whether the appeals of the voters, whose names were deleted from the preliminary final rolls published on February 28, could also be taken up for consideration by then.
“According to rules, any of the 5.46 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the draft rolls can apply before the DEOs. But no such appeal has been lodged so far,” said a source.
A senior EC official said there was no bar on holding polls with the “final rolls” published on February 28. “The Supreme Court has ordered that those who would be found eligible among the cases under adjudication can be added to the final rolls through supplementary rolls. The EC can add those cases which would be cleared by the judicial officers till the last date of nomination,” said the official.