The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the appointment of judicial officers to help complete the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal amid a tussle between the state and the Election Commission, The Hindu reported.

The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin Pancholi was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the conduct of the exercise in the state. West Bengal is among the 12 states and Union Territories where the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway.

The bench said that there was an “unfortunate blame game of allegations and counter-allegations” between the state government and the Election Commission, “which shows trust deficit between two constitutional functionaries”, Bar and Bench reported.

The state’s draft electoral rolls were published on December 16. They showed that more than 58 lakh voters were removed after being marked dead, shifted or absent.

The deletion from the draft roll is provisional and citizens can file claims and objections against the removal of their names.

On Friday, the court observed that the process was “stuck” and that most persons who had been issued notices had submitted documents to support their claims for inclusion in the voter list.

The claims were required to be adjudicated in a quasi-judicial process by electoral registration officers, it noted.

The bench requested the Calcutta High Court...

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