Amid allegations of deletion of voters’ names, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered setting up of independent appellate tribunals headed by former high court judges to adjudicate on appeals against exclusion of voters during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant warned against attempts to undermine the integrity of judicial officers dealing with claims and objections of those facing deletion from electoral rolls ahead of the ensuing assembly elections in the state.“How dare you file such applications? It shows as if you don’t have trust…No one should dare question the judicial officers. As the Chief Justice of India, I will not tolerate this,” the CJI said, describing such moves as an affront to the judiciary.The Bench – which also included Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, was piqued over submissions made in a fresh petition that judicial officers should not be permitted to deal with the claims and objections over deletions from voter lists.In the final voter list of West Bengal published on February 28 about 63 lakh names were deleted while over 60 lakh names were under adjudication.The Bench noted that the judicial officers so far have dealt with 10.16 lakh objections and claims of those facing deletion from the electoral rolls by March 9 evening.The Bench refused to entertain two fresh petitions filed by individuals claiming illegal exclusion from the final electoral roll.Last month, the top court deployed judicial officers, including those from neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand, for the adjudication of claims and objections in the SIR process in West Bengal. Many of the cases related to ‘logical discrepancies’ in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list. It included instances of a mismatch in the parent’s name and the age difference between a voter and his/her parent being less than 15 years or more than 50 years.On February 9, the top court had made it clear that it will not allow anyone to create any impediment in the completion of the SIR and directed the West Bengal DGP to file an affidavit on the poll panel’s allegation of burning of its notices by some persons.On Tuesday, the Bench perused the fresh report of the Calcutta High Court chief justice and passed fresh directions. It asked the West Bengal government and the Election Commission to provide all logistical support to judicial officers in the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.“The ECI shall not introduce any mandatory requirement that could disrupt the process unless approved by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court,” it directed.“Technical issues affecting the online portal must be promptly resolved,” it said.The bench said new login IDs for judicial officers be created promptly to ensure smooth revision of electoral rolls. It also said that decisions of the judicial officers cannot be examined in appeals by any administrative officers of the Election Commission.It said the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court may request some former high court chief justices and two or three former high court judges, preferably from the Calcutta High Court or neighbouring states, to serve on the appellate tribunals.Once recommended, the Election Commission will have to notify them as Appellate Tribunals to hear such appeals. The number of members on each bench has been left to the discretion of the Calcutta High Court chief justice, it said.