Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday told the Mamata Banerjee government not to make small excuses to stall the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal.

“Please do not make small excuses to stall the process. This has to end. Let judicial officers work. They will work independently,” CJI Kant told senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the state.

Making an urgent mention before the bench of CJI Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, Sibal objected to the training module prepared by the Election Commission for the judicial officers appointed to ensure the completion of the SIR process.

“Judicial officers have been given a training module on what to refer and what not to refer. This court stated chief justice of Calcutta High Court will decide modalities,” Sibal told the bench, as reported by legal news websites.

“Who will train them to understand the process? Our order is clear as daylight and EC instruction cannot override our orders,” Justice Bagchi reportedly said.

CJI Kant observed: “We gave an alien responsibility to the judicial officers.”

The deadline for publishing the final draft roll is February 28 (Saturday) and the verification of around 60 lakh voters flagged under logical discrepancy or unmapped voters is still pending.

The apex court had in a series of orders – that it called “extraordinary – instructed the Calcutta High Court to assign judicial officers in Bengal and also seek the help of the high courts in neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha to complete the process.

Sibal objected to the EC officials directing the judicial officers on which certificate is admissible and which is not.

Sibal alleged the EC is declining identity proofs that were earlier cleared by the apex court as admissible documents.

Two days ago, the top court had clarified that Madhyamik admit cards would be accepted along with pass certificates.

“They are saying domicile certificate by the sub-divisional officer will not be accepted,” Sibal informed the bench.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi told Sibal: “If it is in the notification and in our orders, then it will be looked into.”

Sibal said even Bengal’s chief secretary Nandini Chakravarty was summoned to prove her credentials.

“Her own voting right was taken,” he said.