Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday indefinitely adjourned the hearing of a petition seeking a court-monitored Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bengal.
The order was passed by Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul. The bench decided not to proceed after counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI) argued that the petition was not maintainable, pointing out that similar SIR-related matters were already pending before the Supreme Court.
ECI counsel told the court that the Supreme Court had recently expressed serious concern over a similar development in the Uttarakhand High Court, which had entertained an SIR petition despite the issue being under consideration before the apex court.
It was submitted that the Supreme Court had noted it was “deeply perturbed” by such parallel proceedings and observed that high courts were expected to “keep their hands away”
when the matter is already being heard by the top court.
Taking note of this, the court was not inclined to admit the petition at this stage. The court said it would prefer to wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on the pending SIR matters before taking up the plea for further hearing.