Biswajit Basu becomes fourth retired judge to resign from SIR tribunal in West Bengal
The SIR process in the state was conducted from October 2025 to February 2026, just before the assembly elections More than 91 lakh voters were struck off the electoral rolls; before the start of SIR, they made up about 13% of all voters in the state. File | Photo credit: PTI
Former Calcutta High Court judge Biswajit Basu on Saturday (November 7, 2026) resigned from the West Bengal Special Intensive Review (SIR) Tribunal citing personal reasons.
He became the fourth judge to resign and raised questions over the functioning of the 19 tribunals tasked with hearing the appeals of 38,000 voters struck off the electoral rolls during the SIR process in the state.
Justice (retd) Basu had earlier expressed displeasure with the functioning of the tribunals, saying, “Disposing of thousands of cases in this manner is a bit difficult. Since it has been done on the direction of the Supreme Court, it has to be done.”
He sent his resignation to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge. He was also appointed as the chairman of the Institutional Corruption Commission by the Suvendu Adhikari-led state government.
“Slow caseload pace”
The Election Commission of India constituted 19 Appellate Tribunals in West Bengal to hear appeals related to the inclusion or exclusion of voters in the electoral rolls under the SIR exercise, with each tribunal headed by retired judges of the Calcutta High Court. Apart from retired Justice Basu, former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court TS Sivagnanam, former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh and former Justice Indrajit Chatterjee are others who have resigned.
The judges presiding over the tribunals expressed their displeasure at the slow pace of handling the backlog of applications. According to the minutes of the meeting of the judges of the tribunal on August 11, most of the judges complained about the ECINET portal, saying that it did not work as it should.
However, all those who resigned cited personal reasons at the time of their resignation. Justice (retd) Sivagnanam was the first to resign in May 2026, followed by Justice (retd) Bagh and Justice (retd) Chatterjee, who also complained about the long commute from their residence to the SIR tribunal at Joka.
13% of voters deleted
The SIR process in the state was conducted from October 2025 to February 2026, just before the assembly elections More than 91 lakh voters were struck off the electoral rolls; before the start of SIR, they made up about 13% of all voters in the state.
According to an affidavit filed by the ECI in September, of the 27 million voters who were excluded from the electoral rolls based on “logical inconsistencies”, 22 million voters filed appeals in the tribunal challenging their exclusion. The ECI affidavit added that 16.10 lakh appeals were also filed against inclusion during SIR. The total number of pending appeals before the SIR tribunals thus stands at 38 million.
Published – 07 Nov 2026 22:14 IST