Kolkata: Judicial scrutiny of documents associated with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls began in a staggered manner on Monday amid technical hiccups affecting work in several parts of the state.
The Supreme Court India had earlier directed that judicial officers appointed by the Calcutta High Court would supervise the verification and disposal of documents related to the SIR process.
The exercise commenced on Monday. However, sources said failure to generate login IDs for several judicial officers initially hampered the verification process.
Against this backdrop, Chief Justice Sujay Paul convened an urgent high-level meeting at the Calcutta High Court on Monday. The meeting was attended by state Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, senior officials from the CEO’s office, the state Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police, Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, the state Advocate General, and the Additional Solicitor General representing the Centre. All district judges joined virtually.
The meeting reviewed practical challenges faced by judges in conducting the verification process and discussed measures to address the shortcomings.
“The verification work has already started in some places. However, there were issues with OTP authentication for creating login IDs. The matter has now been resolved and full-fledged verification is expected to begin from Monday night or, at the latest, by Tuesday morning,” Agarwal said after the meeting.
According to senior officials in the CEO’s office, login IDs of over 200 judicial officers had been generated till Monday evening. At present, around 250 judicial officers have been allocated by the Commission for the exercise. Everyday report will be submitted to High Court about the progress in document scrutiny.
The Commission has indicated that approximately 60 lakh voters’ documents would need to be verified and disposed of by judicial officers. However, though there was discussion about publishing a detailed list, the exact figure — whether it stands at 60 lakh or more — has not yet been officially disclosed in the public domain.
Sources also alleged that the Commission did not initially provide district-wise and Assembly-wise lists of pending voters whose verification was incomplete, leading to administrative difficulties. These concerns were flagged during Monday’s meeting.
According to the Commission, once judicial officers log in with their respective IDs, they will be able to access the list of voters awaiting verification along with the documents submitted by each elector.
They will also be able to view observations made by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO), observer and micro-observer.
A separate column has been provided for the judicial officer’s remarks, along with two options — approve or reject — for marking the decision.