Calcutta HC CJ holds 'internal coordination meeting' with CEO, officials on SIR

Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul on Monday held an internal coordination meeting with West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and senior administrative and police officials over the SIR work entrusted to judicial officers, officials said. The Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, and DGP were among those present at the meeting. Speaking to reporters after the nearly hour-long deliberation, CEO Manoj Agarwal described it as an ''internal meeting''. He said that training of judicial officers on the online portal for the SIR of electoral rolls in the state was completed on Monday morning, and the exercise has already commenced in several places. ''There were some teething problems regarding OTPs, but these have been overcome,'' Agarwal said. On February 20, the Supreme Court issued an ''extraordinary'' direction to deploy serving and former district judges to assist the poll panel in the controversy-ridden SIR process in the state. The apex court ordered deputation of judicial officers for adjudication of claims and objections of persons placed under the logical discrepancy lists and facing removal of their names from the electoral rolls. Logical discrepancies in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list include mismatches in parents' names and cases where the age difference between a voter and the parent is less than 15 years or more than 50 years. The top court had asked Chief Justice Sujoy Paul to spare some judicial officers and identify former judges to assist in the SIR exercise, taking serious note of the state government not sparing enough Grade 'A' officers for the revision work. Sources in the Chief Electoral Officer's office said the issue regarding the inclusion of 60 lakh names was yet to be addressed before the final roll's publication. They said that if needed, some names might be included in the supplementary list to be published a week after February 28. The maximum of these 60 lakh voters are in Murshidabad, followed by North and South 24 Parganas districts. At the meeting between the CEO's office, Kolkata police and state officials said that security would be provided to 200 judicial officers. Regarding the query about deploying central forces for poll duty, a senior police official said central forces personnel will be posted at different spots rather than keeping them in reserve.