AA Edit | Complete SIR, but Let All Eligible Vote in WB polls

Handholding the Election Commission through its special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in West Bengal, the Supreme Court has directed that the service of former judges of the high court be requested to chair the appellate panels hearing petitions against the decisions of electoral registration officers (EROs), themselves members of the judiciary, who have been working “day and night, without holidays” to dispose of objections raised to the eligibility of 63 lakh people over “logical discrepancies”.

It is yet to be seen if the collective efforts of the Supreme Court, EC and the judiciary in West Bengal and neighbouring states will result in the completion of the task before the Assembly elections which are due in the state in a couple of months. As per reports, the EROs have been able to settle only 10 lakh complaints they have received against the EC’s decision to remove their names after the final list was published on February 28.

However, a back-of-the-pack assessment of the exercise will compel anyone to believe that it will take a commensurate period of time to decide on the rest of the complaints. Even if the Supreme Court and the EC fortify the mechanism requisitioning the services of more judges from more states, it can still take a considerable amount of time. The appellate mechanism the Supreme Court is now putting together will take its time to decide on every appeal on merit. In short, it is highly doubtful if the SC and the EC racing against time to complete the process before the election will be able to meet their target.

Yet why this uncommon enthusiasm after such a big bungling? Indeed, there is no law that mandates voting can be conducted only after the completion of such an exercise! The ones marked “under adjudication” could be allowed to vote in this election anyway.

The EC has a point in that the electoral roll must be a sanctioned document which has the entries of all and only legitimate citizens of this country and no political party or citizen, or even courts, have objected to it. As the EC itself has stated, it has gone through the process eight times since Independence, and never once did it show the desperation it expresses now. In fact, in all previous instances save the latest one, the process was a smooth one, little inconveniencing the voters.

Greek mathematician Euclid famously told King Ptolemy I of Egypt that there is no royal road to geometry. The SC and the EC that have been working to secure the most sacred right of a citizen of a democratic country must understand there is no royal road to democracy as well. The due processes of democracy take their time; it is best to be patient with them. No one, howsoever high they sit in the hierarchy, has a right to tamper with them. Their job is to facilitate people to cast their vote and not to undermine that right. If freedom is the birthright of Indians which they won after a long and painful struggle, no one has the right to stand in the way. And the people must vote, come what may, if they are eligible to do the same.