Daijiworld Media Network - Kolkata
Kolkata, Nov 7: Former Calcutta High Court judge Biswajit Basu resigned from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Tribunal on Saturday, becoming the fourth member to quit the panel constituted to hear appeals from voters whose names were excluded during the electoral roll revision in West Bengal.
Basu cited personal reasons for his decision and submitted his resignation in a letter addressed to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge.
His resignation comes days after former Justice Indrajit Chatterjee stepped down from the tribunal, citing difficulties in commuting to its office. Chatterjee had said that travelling 22 km every day was difficult. He had accepted the assignment on the understanding that the tribunal's work would be completed within two to three months. However, the large number of pending cases indicated that the process would take considerably longer, prompting him to resign.
Former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh had also resigned, citing personal reasons without elaborating on them. Earlier, former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had stepped down from the tribunal, referring to family issues.
The tribunal was constituted following directions from the Supreme Court and comprises 19 retired judges and magistrates. It was established to provide an avenue for people whose names were omitted from the final electoral roll following the SIR exercise to appeal for their inclusion. With Basu's exit, four of the 19 members have now resigned.
The final electoral roll in West Bengal, excluding around 60 lakh cases referred for judicial adjudication, was published on February 28. The Election Commission had stated that supplementary electoral rolls would be released as the adjudication process progressed.
West Bengal had 7,66,37,529 registered voters before the SIR notification was issued in November last year. The draft electoral roll, published in December, saw the deletion of 58,20,899 names. The final roll released on February 28 this year recorded a total of 63,66,952 deletions.
The tribunal's workload is linked to the appeals arising from these deletions. The supplementary electoral rolls are expected to incorporate the outcome of the judicial scrutiny, enabling eligible applicants whose claims are accepted to have their names restored to the voters' list.