Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday evening informed that 200 additional judicial officers -- 100 each from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha -- will join the ongoing judicial adjudication process relating to voters’ identity documents flagged under the “logical discrepancy” category in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal. 

The additional judicial officers are expected to join the exercise on March 6.

Their deployment is aimed at expediting the adjudication of around 60 lakh voters’ identity documents that have been placed under the “logical discrepancy” category.

Although the final electoral roll in West Bengal was published on February 28, it did not include the approximately 60 lakh cases marked as “under adjudication”. Supplementary lists are to be published in due course, depending on the progress of the judicial adjudication process.

A senior official in the Commission said that the judicial officers arriving from Jharkhand and Odisha would be deployed district-wise based on the number of “under adjudication” cases in each district.

“Districts with the highest number of ‘under adjudication’ cases will see a proportionately higher deployment of judicial officers from these two neighbouring states,” a Commission official said.

Meanwhile, a fresh exchange of statements took place between the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, and the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers’ Association (WBCSEOA) over the issue.

Earlier in the day, the association accused Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal of attributing the marking of certain names as “under adjudication” in the final electoral roll to the functioning of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs).

In a late evening statement, the CEO’s office refuted the allegation and stated that it had not attributed all cases under adjudication to indecision by EROs and AEROs.

“However, a certain number of cases remained pending at the level of EROs/AEROs and were therefore referred for adjudication, which is factually verifiable. WBCSEOA cannot and should not assume the role of spokesperson for officers under deemed deputation to the ECI. Posting comments on the basis of hearsay and attempts to discredit constitutional bodies or statutory authorities can have serious consequences. Government servants are well advised to function within the Lakshman Rekha of the applicable conduct rules,” the statement said.