The Supreme Court was told on Friday that among those deleted from the electoral rolls of West Bengal after the special intensive revision of the lists are 65 election duty officers, reported Bar and Bench.

Their counsel, Senior Advocate MR Shamshad told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that the officers’ duty orders mention their Electors’ Photo Identity Card numbers.

“Now those numbers are deleted [from the rolls],” he was quoted as saying. “This is, on the face arbitrary.”

However, the bench told the petitioners to approach the appellate tribunal.

“This election, yes, perhaps they cannot vote,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying. “The more valuable right to remain on the rolls shall be preserved.”

The Supreme Court also said that if persons whose names were deleted from the West Bengal electoral rolls are able to make a case of urgency, the appellate tribunals may give them out-of-turn hearings, reported Live Law.

“If matter requires judicial intervention, petitioner or similarly placed persons can approach the High Court on judicial side,” added the bench.

This came after advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay told the court that only 136 voters out of the 27 lakh whose appeals were pending before the appellate tribunal were added to the electoral rolls before the cut-off...

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