Supreme Court of India. File
| Photo Credit: S. Subramanium

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Tuesday (March 24, 2026) commented on the continuing hurdles in the West Bengal Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying he “read an article” which said the massive electoral roll exercise in other States, whether they were governed by “A, B or C political party”, happened “smoothly”.

“Whether the State is governed by A, B or C political party… Other than West Bengal, the SIR in every other State has happened smoothly. By and large, there is hardly any litigation,” the Chief Justice, heading a Bench, remarked.

Senior advocate and MP for the ruling Trinamool Congress in poll-bound West Bengal, Kalyan Bandhopadhyay, submitted the State was the only one in which the Election Commission came up with the ‘logical discrepancy’ criterion to purge electors. He said lakhs of people were on the brink of losing their right to vote in the Assembly elections in April 2026.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi, on the Bench, observed there was no point in saying West Bengal had “thrown up a unique problem”.

“Other States also had their own issues. We are not going to dwell on the uniqueness of the issue, but address the ground reality that in a State the fundamental and constitutional rights to participate in an election is to be protected. That is the bottom line for us,” Justice Bagchi said.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, for the West Bengal government, said 60 lakh cases of exclusions from the State electoral roll were under adjudication as on March 23. He said the first supplementary list of voters showed 27 lakh cases of claims and objections were disposed of by judicial officers functioning as Election Registration Officers (EROs) in an all-out effort to complete the SIR before the Assembly polls.

Freezing of poll roll

Mr. Divan said the first phase of polling would cover 152 constituencies in the State. The last date of filing nomination for this phase was April 6. The polling date was April 23. He said the Representation of the People Act, 1950 required freezing of the electoral roll seven days before the last date of the filing of nomination forms.

Similarly, the second phase covered 142 constituencies. The last date for nomination was April 9, and the polling was scheduled on April 29.

“At the rate of disposal of cases under adjudication in the last 30 days, it would be extremely difficult for judicial officers, in spite of their best efforts, to complete the process of adjudication in respect of the first phase by April 6 or by April 9 for the second phase,” Mr. Divan voiced the State’s concern.

He pointed out that there were at least 14 candidates of “a political party” who were presently marked ‘under adjudication’.

“They will not be able to file their nomination by April 6 if their cases are not disposed of by then… Candidates whose cases are under adjudication, their cases may be expedited and be taken up on a priority basis. Supplementary lists may be published on a daily basis,” the senior advocate urged the court for directions.

He suggested that electors whose cases continue to be under adjudication after the last date must be allowed their right to vote in the Assembly elections. In many instances they might have been voters in the previous elections.

Mr. Divan reminded the Supreme Court of its assurance, along with that of the Election Commission, that no eligible voter would be left out of the election process.

“The Supreme Court has to ensure this promise,” Mr. Divan submitted. He said the court could consider directing the freezing of the electoral roll seven days prior to the two polling dates, rather than the last day of filing nomination forms.

“That is, April 16 for the first phase and April 22 for the second phase. Adjudication of the cases could possibly be completed by then,” he suggested.

Besides noting that 19 appellate SIR tribunals have been constituted in West Bengal, Mr. Divan said they should start functioning immediately to hear the appeals of voters who have been found ineligible by the EROs/judicial officers.

Published – March 24, 2026 08:39 pm IST