Mamata argues in SC, alleges targeting of West Bengal in SIR exercise

In a rare move by a serving chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday argued her petition in the Supreme Court against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and alleged unfair targetting of West Bengal by the poll panel and bulldozing of its citizensUrging the top court to save democracy and intervene to ensure fair special intensive revision SIR of electoral rolls by the Election Commission keeping in mind the fact that people alive have been declared dead by the poll panelShe once referred to the poll panel as the WhatsApp commission in an apparent reference to the directions being allegedly passed by the EC to the electoral officials on WhatsAppBanerjee who was represented by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Shyam Divan sought the nod of a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant to personally advance her submissionsShe said her state was not getting justice anywhere and despite having written six letters to the poll panel on SIR she has not received any replyTheir SIR process is only for deletion not for inclusion she told the bench also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M PancholiAsking why the same yardstick was not applied in Assam Banerjee said West Bengal is being targetedThey are targeting West Bengal to bulldoze its people said the chief minister who was permitted by the bench to supplement submissions of her lawyerAt the outset Divan started his submissions and later Mamata was seen standing besides himShe then requested the bench to permit her to address the courtIf you can allow me five minutes only she askedThe CJI responded by saying the court would give her not five but 15 minutes to advance her submissionsShe flagged difficulties being faced by the citizens due to the SIR exercise and said people were happy that the apex court gave a direction to include Aadhaar as one of the documents in the processBanerjee alleged that despite the apex courts direction the poll panel was not allowing Aadhaar and seeking other documents from the voters for electoral roll revisionIn other states documents like domicile certificate family register card etc are allowed they are only targetting Bengal on the eve of elections What was the hurry she askedShe said the process which usually takes two years was being undertaken in a short span of three months even during festival and harvesting season in the stateBanerjee also claimed that many people who are alive have been declared dead by the EC during the ongoing processShe then flagged the issue of deaths of officials who are involved in the SIR exerciseSenior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the EC countered the charges and alleged that the West Bengal government has provided the services of only 80 gradetwo officers like SDMs for overseeing SIR processHe said only lowranked government employees like Anganwadi workers have been provided by the West Bengal government for the processBanerjee countered the ECs claim and said the state has provided whatever sought by the poll panelAt the outset of her submissions Banerjee quoted Rabindranath Tagore and said The problem is our lawyers always fought our case from the beginning but when everything is finished we are not getting justice When justice is behind doors We are not getting justice anywhereI am a bonded labourer sir I am from a common family and I am not fighting for my party she saidWhen the counsel appearing for the EC interrupted Banerjee with folded hands said Please allow me to speak sirShe flagged that married women were being put to notice for shifting to their inlaws house or using their husbands surnameBanerjee claimed the poll panel has not complied with the top courts directions on logical discrepancy listWhen the ECs counsel objected to her submissions CJI Kant interrupted saying Madam has come all the way to speakDuring the hearing the bench observed that genuine persons must remain on the electoral rollThe CJI said every problem has a solution and it must be ensured that no innocent person is left outConcluding her submissions Banerjee conveyed her regards to the bench for giving her the opportunity to argue and urged it to save democracyThe bench issued notices and sought replies by February 9 from the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal on her petitionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever