Overview
- Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the Election Commission to file a common reply within one week after the panel sought two, with the matter listed for January 19.
- Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen moved interim applications alleging arbitrariness, informal WhatsApp and oral instructions to field staff, and a non-statutory ‘logical discrepancies’ category.
- Petitioners say 58.2 lakh names were deleted after the December 16 draft roll and that about 1.36 crore electors received notices under ‘logical discrepancies’ without written guidelines.
- Mamata Banerjee’s fifth letter to CEC Gyanesh Kumar alleges non-issuance of receipts for documents and AI transliteration of 2002 rolls causing data mismatches that triggered wrongful notices.
- The applications seek an extension of the January 15 claims-and-objections deadline, while protesting BLOs in Kolkata report severe pressure and cite reports of multiple deaths during the exercise.