Former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman insinuated the public over the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), particularly in the context of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, as reported in LiveLaw.
However, the electoral outcome in the Assembly constituencies that recorded the highest number of voter deletions presents a contrasting picture, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) winning 13 of the 20 seats that saw the highest number of deletions, as reported in The New Indian Express.
Speaking on ‘The Constitution and the Common Man’ at Rajkumar College in Rajkot, Justice Nariman questioned the functioning of the poll panel and expressed concern over what he described as the disenfranchisement of 90 lakh voters during the SIR exercise in West Bengal.
“You can’t have an election commission which functions or malfunctions like this,” he said.
Justice Nariman also expressed disappointment that the alleged disenfranchisement of 90 lakh voters had not moved the Supreme Court sufficiently to stay the SIR process.
He said the right to vote was “at great peril” and described the appointment of Election Commissioners entirely by the government of the day as a “red flag”.
He called for the Supreme Court to decide at the earliest on the validity of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which governs the appointment of Election Commissioners.
Nariman Links SIR To Electoral Outcome
Justice Nariman went further in linking the West Bengal SIR exercise to the political consequences of voter deletions.
He said, “Now, the unfortunate part is that all this came before the Court very recently. Two learned judges differed, and the ultimate thing is now that it has gone before a bench, probably of five judges, in order to find out whether this is good law or not good law. But meanwhile, these appointments continue only in the hands of the government of the day. Now, we saw the danger of this happening very recently. All of you have seen that in the West Bengal elections, 90 lakh voters were disenfranchised; that is an astounding figure. 90 lakh voters getting disenfranchised did not somehow move the Supreme Court enough to stay this. Out of those who were disenfranchised, some 22 lakh voters actually filed appeals. The others must be people who don’t have the wherewithal or access to justice. And of these 22 lakh voters, some 1 lakh voter appeals were decided 93% in favour of the voters. So, you can imagine this was completely illegal, knocking out of the common man, the citizen of India in order that a government obtains what it wants. And in West Bengal, we saw, it ousted the Government of the day and brought in the Government of the Centre .Now, these are very very disturbing things that are happening in our country today.”
However, the constituency-level electoral data cited in connection with the voter deletions does not straightforwardly support the suggestion that the deletions benefited the party that formed the government at the Centre.
According to data reported by The Indian Express, of the 20 West Bengal Assembly constituencies that recorded the highest number of voter deletions after adjudication, the TMC won 13 seats. The BJP won six, while the Congress won one.
The figures therefore show that the party that was allegedly disadvantaged by the SIR process secured victories in a majority of the 20 constituencies with the highest number of deletions.
The results do provide an important electoral context to the broader claim that the deletion of voters in West Bengal directly translated into an electoral advantage for the government at the Centre.
Nariman Relies On Indian Express Report, But Ignores Its Own Electoral Data
Justice Nariman’s criticism also relied on a recent Indian Express report about differences within the Election Commission over the SIR exercise. He cited the report to argue that objections raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi pointed to deeper concerns within the poll panel.
However, the same Indian Express had earlier reported the electoral outcome in the constituencies that recorded the highest number of voter deletions — a fact that provides important context to Justice Nariman’s broader claim about the impact of the SIR exercise.
Of the 20 West Bengal Assembly constituencies that recorded the highest number of voter deletions after adjudication, the TMC won 13 seats. The BJP won six, while the Congress won one.
This means that the party that won the majority of these constituencies was the TMC, which secured 13 of the 20 seats with the highest voter deletions.
Yet, while referring to the Indian Express report on differences within the ECI, Justice Nariman did not refer to the publication’s earlier constituency-level data showing how these seats actually voted.
His remarks instead linked the deletion of 90 lakh voters to the claim that the exercise had helped the government at the Centre, saying, “So, you can imagine this was completely illegal, knocking out of the common man, the citizen of India in order that a government obtains what it wants. And in West Bengal, we saw, it ousted the Government of the day and brought in the Government of the Centre. Now, these are very very disturbing things that are happening in our country today.”
The contrast is particularly notable because both sets of information – the report about internal ECI differences and the constituency-level results were reported by the same newspaper.
Justice Nariman’s remarks therefore draw heavily on one Indian Express report to question the functioning and independence of the ECI, while leaving unaddressed the publication’s own earlier reporting showing that TMC won 13 of the 20 seats with the highest voter deletions.
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