Bengal govt officers’ association raises concern over voter deletions in draft rolls under SIR

An association of West Bengal government officers raised objections to what it termed “suo-motu system-driven deletion” of voters in the draft electoral rolls under the ongoing SIR process, bypassing the statutory role of EROs, an official said on Saturday.

In a representation to the West Bengal CEO, the WBCS (Executive) Officers’ Association said that “on the date of the draft publication, a considerable number of electors, whose enumeration forms (EFs) have not been returned on alleged grounds such as death, migration, absence, or duplication, have been deleted from the draft electoral rolls”.

The Election Commission (EC) had on December 16 published the State’s draft electoral rolls following SIR, deleting the names of more than 58 lakh voters on various grounds, including death, migration and non-submission of enumeration forms.

Referring to the existing legal provisions, the association said that the law clearly mandates that an elector’s name can be deleted on special grounds.

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The deletions can be made in cases when “the person concerned has ceased to be ordinarily resident in the constituency or that he is otherwise not entitled to be registered in the electoral roll of that constituency”, it said.

The letter also added that in all such cases, the electoral registration officer (ERO) concerned must give the person concerned a “reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of the action proposed to be taken in relation to him as provided under Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950”.

The state government officers’ organisation said the act of “system-driven deletion of so many electors, all at once, appears to infringe upon the natural rights of electors who might well be otherwise eligible under existing provisions of the law, yet for some reasons or other, could not be present during the enumeration process”.

It also cautioned that names of electors might be deleted from the electoral roll “without the knowledge of the ERO, who is the competent authority as per the statute”.

The State government officers’ organisation said, “Such large-scale deletion of entries from the electoral rolls, bypassing the mandatory statutory provisions, entails a legitimate apprehension that the EROs are being accountable for the act of deletion while they do not have the opportunity to exercise their statutory responsibilities through a quasi-judicial hearing.”

The Election Commission of India, as a constitutional authority, reserves the right to issue necessary directions regarding the revision process, it said.

The people, who will be affected by such action, will “only blame the electoral registration officers without knowing that the EROs have been kept out of the entire deletion process by the commission”, the association added in its letter.

Seeking remedial action, the officers’ organisation requested West Bengal CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal to issue directions so that the EROs may function with greater clarity in their work.