Kolkata: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Tribunal in West Bengal suffered yet another blow when former Calcutta High Court judge Biswajit Basu resigned from the tribunal on Saturday. This is the fourth resignation from the tribunal and now only 15 members remain out of a total of 19 retired judges and magistrates.
In his resignation, Basu cited personal reasons.
This comes just days after former Justice Indrajit Chatterjee resigned from the tribunal, citing the long distance he had to travel to the tribunal office.
“I found it difficult to travel 22 km daily. I agreed to undertake the task assuming that within 2-3 months the work of the tribunal would be finished. However, considering the huge number of cases pending, I have decided to resign,” he had said.
Also, former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh resigned citing personal reasons.
Earlier former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam withdrew from the tribunal citing personal/family reasons.
Four Members Quit Bengal SIR Tribunal
The tribunal was formed under Supreme Court directions. It consists of 19 retired judges and magistrates. It was set up to deal with appeals by voters whose names had been excluded from the final electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal.
After Basu’s resignation, four members have now resigned out of the original 19.
Over 63 Lakh Deletions From Bengal SIR Final Voter List
The final electoral roll was published on February 28 and excluded around 60 lakh cases which were referred for judicial consideration. The Election Commission has said additional electoral rolls will be published.
West Bengal had 7,66,37,529 registered voters.
However, in the draft electoral roll published in December, 58,20,899 names were deleted. Of the final electoral roll published on February 28 this year a total of 63,66,952 names were deleted.
This means that the tribunal has a large amount of work to do. Additional electoral rolls are expected to be published reflecting the results of the judicial consideration. All eligible applicants whose claims have been accepted will have their names included on the electoral list.