The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain the West Bengal Government’s objections to the Election Commission imparting “training” to judicial officers deployed to verify claims for expediting the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the state.“Please do not make small excuses to stall the process. This has to end… Let the judicial officers work… They will work independently. The judicial officers must be trusted,” a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal Government.“Who will train them? To understand the process. Our order is clear as daylight and the EC’s instructions cannot override our orders,” the Bench emphasised.The court’s remarks came after Sibal mentioned the matter for urgent hearing. “Something strange has happened, directions/modalities to the judicial officers have been issued by the Election Commission behind your back after the order of this court. Judicial officers have been given a training module on what to refer and what not to refer. This court stated the Chief Justice of the High Court will decide modalities,” Sibal submitted.The Bench, however, disagreed. It said there was nothing improper in the poll panel coordinating with judicial officers who were unfamiliar with the SIR work assigned to them. “We gave an alien responsibility to the judicial officers,” the CJI noted.“But they (judicial officers) cannot take instructions from the EC that follow this and take this certificate and not,” Sibal insisted.As Sibal alleged that the EC was not accepting identity proofs permitted by the top court, the Bench said all such concerns would be addressed.The court pointed out that almost all judicial officers in West Bengal had been engaged to ensure smooth conduct of the SIR.On February 24, the Supreme Court allowed deployment of civil judges with at least three years’ experience from neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand for timely completion of the SIR of electoral rolls ahead of the Assembly elections.Earlier, on February 20, citing a “trust deficit” between the West Bengal Government and the Election Commission, the Bench had directed deployment of judicial officers, including retired judges, in the state for the exercise. The scope was later expanded after the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court informed the Supreme Court that 250 judicial officers had been assigned to decide around 80 lakh claims and objections under “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped” categories.Logical discrepancies included mismatches in a parent’s name in progeny links with the 2002 electoral roll, or cases where the age gap between a voter and his or her parent was less than 15 years or more than 50 years.