EC sets seven-day deadline for voter list mapping in Bengal ahead of SIR rollout
Kolkata (PTI): The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday directed officials in West Bengal to expedite the voter list mapping process as part of preparations for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), setting a deadline of seven days to complete the process, an official said.
Nearly 40 per cent of the task remains unfinished, with progress reportedly sluggish in several districts, the official said, elaborating that the mapping exercise involves verifying existing voters against the 2002 electoral roll to ensure accuracy in the 2025 list.
At a review meeting held at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Kolkata during the day, senior Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti issued clear instructions in this regard to district magistrates, electoral registration officers (EROs), and assistant EROs, excluding officials from the disaster-affected districts of North Bengal, the official told PTI.
Commission officials expressed concern over the pace of work and questioned delays, despite the Puja holidays being cited by some districts. Bharti rejected the justification, stressing the importance of keeping up with the national timeline, he said.
"SIR is being conducted across the country, not just in Bengal. Other states have completed the task or are near completion. If West Bengal lags, it will create problems at the national level. Therefore, we cannot allow more than seven days," Bharti told officials at the meeting.
Reports of alleged irregularities in the voter list also surfaced during the meeting. Bharti warned that any malpractice during the SIR process would invite strict action.
"No one will be spared if complaints of malpractices are received. In Bihar, we have already taken tough measures," he said.
The quality of work by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who were tasked with ground-level verification, also came under scrutiny.
Director General of the Commission's IT division, Seema Khanna, pointed out that BLOs' tech proficiency remains unsatisfactory and called for immediate completion of training programmes.
She suggested a cluster-based training approach, allowing experienced BLOs to guide others on the use of digital tools.
At the meeting, the officials discussed the functioning of the 'ERONET' app in detail during the meeting, the source said.
"As per the Commission's directive, the BLOs must upload voter data directly from the field using the app, enabling real-time monitoring by the Commission," he said.
After the main meeting at the CEO's office, the Commission's team visited the North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad Bhawan and held discussions with election workers from the Rajarhat-Gopalpur and Rajarhat-New Town assembly constituencies. Separate meetings were also held with EROs and AEROs at the district magistrate's office.
Although North Bengal districts were exempted from Wednesday's in-person meeting due to the recent natural disaster, officials from Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, and Malda joined via video conference, the official stated.
The ECI also clarified that the Aadhaar card will not be treated as proof of citizenship during the Special Intensive Revision, an official said.
The clarification came during the meeting, where senior state officials directly asked the visiting ECI delegation whether Aadhaar could be accepted as a valid document for establishing citizenship in the ongoing SIR exercise.
Both Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti and West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal responded at the meeting by citing the Supreme Court's position that Aadhaar serves only as a proof of identity and not of citizenship.
Officials also raised concerns over those whose parents' names are missing from the 2002 electoral roll, which is being used as the base year for the verification process. In such cases, the Commission has mandated formal inquiries or hearings to establish eligibility.
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Mere breakup not enough for abetment to suicide: Delhi HC
New Delhi (PTI): Merely breaking up may not amount to instigation for a case of abetment of suicide under the criminal law, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice Manoj Jain made the observation while dealing with a bail plea by a man accused of abetting the suicide of his former partner, who hanged herself five days after his marriage to another woman.
Granting bail to the accused, the court observed that the instigation should be of such a nature that leaves the deceased with no option but to commit suicide.
It said only a trial would establish whether the deceased's "extreme step" was on account of provocation, instigation, "merely on account of her being hyper-sensitive girl" or for some other reason.
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In the present case, the court noted, there was no dying declaration, and the parties were in a relationship for around eight years, during which there was no complaint from the deceased.
The court observed there was a considerable time gap between the date when the parties stopped talking and the date of the suicide.
"Apparently, it seems to be a case of a broken relationship and quite possibly, the deceased, having come to know that the applicant has got married to someone else, has chosen to finish herself," the court said in the order passed on February 24.
"Though broken relationship and heartbreaks have become common these days, mere breaking-up of relationship may not per se constitute instigation so as to make it to be a case of abetment under Section 108 BNS (abetment of suicide)," the court order read.
According to the father of the deceased, his daughter had been trapped by the accused, who pressured her to convert to his religion for marriage, and it was under such pressure that his daughter committed suicide by hanging herself with a chunni in October 2025.
The accused was arrested in November 2025.
The court observed that, according to the woman's friends, she was upset, and they never claimed anything on conversion. The accused had stopped talking to her from February 2025 onwards, it said.
According to the order, the man was let out on bail on a personal bond and surety bond of Rs 25,000 each.
The accused submitted that the parties were in a cordial relationship for around eight years, but the woman's parents were against the relationship since they belonged to different religions.
He alleged that it was her parents who forced her to sever the relationship.
