Fourth former Calcutta HC judge quits Bengal electoral review tribunal

Justice Biswajit Basu has resigned from the Special Inquiry Report (SIR) tribunal in West Bengal, marking the fourth departure of a former Calcutta High Court judge from the controversial panel. The tribunal was constituted to probe the circumstances surrounding the large-scale deletion of voter names from Bengal's electoral registers, an issue that had triggered significant political controversy.

The successive resignations of senior judicial officers have raised questions about the functioning and credibility of the tribunal. The departures suggest internal concerns within the judicial establishment regarding the tribunal's mandate or operational framework.

The deletion of names from Bengal's voter rolls had become a flashpoint for political debate, with various stakeholders questioning the authenticity of the electoral process. The SIR tribunal was formed to examine these allegations and determine the reasons behind the mass erasure of voter identities.

The tribunal's composition and the departures of multiple former judges underscores the administrative and institutional challenges facing the investigation into the electoral anomalies in India's third-largest state by population. The reasons cited by the judges for their resignations have not been made public, leaving the matter shrouded in official silence.