Mamata Banerjee moves SC against SIR in West Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. Banerjee filed the petition on January 28. She has made the Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal as parties in the case. The matter is yet to be listed for hearing in the top court. The Supreme Court is already hearing a bunch of petitions on the SIR issue. Banerjee had earlier written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) urging him to halt the ''arbitrary and flawed'' SIR in the poll-bound state. Sharpening her attack on the Election Commission, Banerjee had warned that continuation of the SIR in the present form could trigger ''mass disenfranchisement'' and ''strike at the foundations of democracy''. In a strongly worded letter dated January 3 to CEC Gyanesh Kumar, she accused the EC of presiding over an ''unplanned, ill-prepared and ad hoc'' process marked by ''serious irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses''.