India top court allows Mamata to submit plea against voter list revision

India’s Supreme Court on Monday told West Bengal’s All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) that they can file fresh pleas over the state’s voter list revision by federal authorities – a move the party leadership alleges led to their defeat in recent local polls.

The apex court issued remarks in this regard after senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for TMC, told the court that the winning margin over TMC was less than the number of persons who have sought legal redressals against the deletion of their names from the electoral roll in a recent controversial reassessment.

Notably, the concerned courts’ deliberations over all the appeals filed by the aggrieved deleted voters, mostly Muslims, would take almost four years to complete.

Kalyan Banerjee, also a TMC member, alleged that in 31 seats, victory margins were less than the number of votes deleted.

In many cases, the deletions and the loss margin were almost the same, he added.

Kalyan Banerjee submitted that one candidate lost by 862 votes in a constituency where over 5,432 persons were removed from the rolls for adjudication. He claimed that the vote gap between the TMC and the BJP was nearly 32 lakhs, and nearly 35 lakh appeals were pending before the appellate tribunals.

Banerjee also referred to an earlier observation made by Justice Bagchi that if the winning margin was less than the number of deleted voters, then the matter may require judicial examination.

The Election Commission opposed the submissions, saying that the remedy was an election petition and that the poll panel could be held accountable for issues related to the SIR and consequential appeals against the addition or deletion of votes.

The Supreme Court responds

The Supreme Court bench said that former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others can file fresh applications regarding their claims.

"Whatever you want to say about results...which may have materially affected because of deletions which are under adjudication...that requires an independent Interlocutory Application (IA)," Justice Bagchi said.

Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy told the bench that at the present rate, the appellate tribunals will take at least 4 years to dispose of the appeals. The CJI said that the priority will be to ensure that appeals are decided expeditiously.

"We indicated to you...subsequent event: you are at liberty to file an IA. Naidu’s (the EC lawyer) objection will come as a counter. We will look into it and pass the order. On pendency of appeals – report from Hon'ble CJ required...to take stock in what timeline they can be resolved," Justice Bagchi added.