Stories
West Bengal Tribunal Judges Highlight Major Technical Gaps in Election Commission Portal
- •Judges handling voter deletion appeals in West Bengal have flagged technical gaps in the Election Commission portal, including issues with issuing notices and conducting virtual hearings.
- •The tribunal concerns were recorded in meeting minutes and communicated to the Election Commission and the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
- •The portal lacks mechanisms to directly serve notices, upload additional documents, or restore deleted voters on the system after successful appeals.
- •Tribunals also highlighted that physical appeals submitted to district-level officials lack a clear mechanism for digitization and tracking on the portal.
Key Questions Answered
Judges handling appeals against voter deletions flagged several gaps in the Election Commission's portal on August 11, including the inability to issue notices, upload additional documents, conduct virtual hearings, restore deleted voters on the system, and provide appellants with copies of tribunal orders.
Due to the portal's lack of a document upload mechanism, tribunals have had to rely on emails to district magistrates and election officers. Additionally, for physical appeals submitted to district-level officials, judges warned there is no clear mechanism to digitize and maintain records on the portal, risking injustice to affected voters.
Independent appellate tribunals headed by former high court judges were set up following directions from the Supreme Court to hear appeals arising from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, which involved the deletion of 27.16 lakh electors.
