Over 15L ‘under adjudication’ cases scrutinised, 5L marked ‘excludable’

Kolkata: Judicial officers appointed by the Calcutta High Court to scrutinise and dispose of the nearly 60 lakh electoral cases placed ‘under adjudication’ have completed the process for over 15 lakh electors till Friday night.

According to sources in the poll body, more than 5 lakh of these electors have been marked in the ‘excludable category’, accounting for around 34 per cent of those whose details have already been adjudicated.

As many as 59 lakh names were categorised as under “deceased” “shifted”, “duplicate”, and “missing” categories and accordingly excluded from the draft voters’ list, which was published in December last year.

Now with another 5 lakh cases placed under the ‘excludable category’, the total number of electors who will not be able to make it to the eligible voters list for the upcoming Assembly polls has reached 64 lakh.

A total of 732 judicial officers, including 100 each from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha, are working day and night to complete the judicial process at the earliest.

The Commission has planned to come out with the first supplementary list based on the number of cases already disposed of by these judicial officers next week. An insider in the state Chief Electoral Officer’s office said that it is likely that after scrutiny and disposal of one third of the 60 lakh cases, the first supplementary list may come up.

The voters who will be excluded will have the opportunity to approach the Appellate Tribunal, as per the latest order of the Supreme Court. However, no concrete decision has been taken as yet on when the tribunal will be constituted, how many benches of the tribunal will work and the location for the same.

The Commission has prepared a list of 150 retired judges who can be roped in for the tribunal, where an excluded voter can approach with his/her grievances. The response regarding whether they are willing to take up the responsibility of the tribunals has been sought from them. “The ball will be rolled for setting up tribunals based on their responses,” said an EC official.

Some legal experts, however, believe that the Commission may wait for the formation of the tribunal before the release of the supplementary list. The Calcutta High Court will decide who will be eligible to seek justice in the tribunals and what the process will be for applying.