The Supreme Court heard the West Bengal SIR case on Monday and issued an interim order. The order is set to delay the publication of the final voter list. Earlier, the final voter list was scheduled to be published on February 14. However, following the court’s directions, scrutiny will continue for another seven days after February 14.
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According to commission sources, the final voter list will not be published before February 21, and efforts will be made to publish it by February 28.
Group-B officers to replace micro observers
In its interim order, the country’s highest court directed that instead of the commission’s micro observers, the 8,505 Group-B officers provided by the state must be appointed starting Tuesday itself. The commission has announced that these 8,505 Group-B officers will join work from tomorrow, followed by two days of training.
The Supreme Court has also instructed that no voter’s name should be omitted due to minor errors. State Chief Electoral Officer Manojkumar Agarwal announced on Monday that after the publication of the final voter list, if a voter’s name is missing, an application can be made to the District Election Officer within five days. If the issue is not resolved at that level, the voter can then apply to the state CEO within the next five days.
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The state CEO office informed that hearings for 1 crore 39 lakh voters have been completed so far, and documents have been uploaded for 1 crore 6 lakh voters. It is noteworthy that the commission informed the Supreme Court that hearings for around 14 lakh people are still pending.
