Less than 1% appeals disposed of by Bengal SIR tribunals in 100 days

Kolkata: Bengal’s SIR tribunals, burdened with 33 lakh appeals, have disposed of only about 30,000 cases — less than 1% of the total — in the 100 days since they became operational.

If proceedings move at the current pace, it would take more than 25 years for the 19 tribunals to clear the backlog.Adding to the workload, the tribunals have also been hit by resignations. Former Calcutta High Court judge Ranjit Bag, who was handling appeals from South 24 Parganas, resigned on Wednesday citing health reasons.Former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, who headed the tribunals hearing appeals from Kolkata and North 24 Parganas, had quit on similar grounds soon after the assembly poll results were announced on May 4.

A retired judge from Bihar is also learnt to have resigned.The state govt has named the heads of two SIR tribunals — retired judges Biswajit Basu and Samapti Chatterjee — to chair commissions that will probe complaints related to corruption and women’s safety. The two are yet to take up their new assignments and are continuing with their SIR work.The 19 tribunals were set up in compliance with a Supreme Court order to hear appeals against deletion of names from the electoral roll, as well as inclusion of names in the list, during the SIR.

They started functioning on March 20.As many as 27 lakh names were deleted from the electoral roll during judicial scrutiny, which was the last phase of the Bengal SIR.Officials associated with the process said the tribunals function like a court: they verify documents, including electoral records, and conduct hearings, if needed. But unlike a court, they lack the administrative and technological infrastructure necessary to handle such a large number of cases.The absence of an online platform for issuing notices and tracking cases is further slowing the process. Notices often have to be served through district administrations.Appeals filed by persons whose citizenship is in doubt are taking longer to be disposed of because Election Commission has referred those cases to the Union home ministry for verification, sources said. The tribunals are awaiting the Centre’s decision before disposing of those cases.The Supreme Court had ordered while hearing a case on the Bengal SIR, “In case the (Election) Commission is not satisfied that a person meets the statutory condition for inclusion in the electoral roll, it would be incumbent upon it to refer the matter to such competent authority within the Central Government.”