Kolkata: To speed up adjudication under West Bengal’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Calcutta High Court has sought the deputation of 200 judicial officers—100 each from the High Courts of Odisha and Jharkhand.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, and attended by senior state and election officials, including West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, Acting DGP Peeyush Pandey, Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar, and Special Roll Observer Subrata Gupta.
The move follows permission granted by the Supreme Court of India on February 24, allowing judicial officers from neighbouring High Courts to be deputed to West Bengal to expedite the adjudication of voter claims and objections—particularly those flagged under the “logical discrepancy” category.
At the meeting, it was also decided that the count of “logical discrepancy” cases finalized at midnight on February 21 would be treated as the final number for adjudication purposes.
So far, 532 judicial officers from courts across West Bengal have been appointed for the exercise, with 273 currently engaged in adjudication. The addition of 200 more officers from Odisha and Jharkhand is expected to significantly accelerate the process.
Authorities said the final voters’ list—excluding cases referred for judicial adjudication—will be published shortly. Supplementary lists will follow based on the progress of adjudication. Judicial officers are submitting daily status reports to the Calcutta High Court to ensure timely completion of the process.
With inputs from IANS