People whose names were allegedly left out of electoral rolls after SIR gather to demand inclusion of their names in Balurghat, West Bengal on March 6, 2026. Photo credit: PTI
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 10, 2026) agreed to hear a fresh plea filed by some persons whose names were deleted from electoral rolls by the Election Commission during the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) in West Bengal.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took cognizance of senior advocate Manek Guruswamy’s submission that the plea was for deletion of former voters from the roll.
“They are voters. They have voted before and now their documents have not been taken,” said a senior lawyer.
“But in the scheme of things, we cannot sit in appeals against decisions of judicial officers,” the CJI observed.
When the senior counsel said the appeals were maintainable, the Bench said it would hear on Tuesday.
On February 24, the Supreme Court authorized the deployment of civil judges from West Bengal, apart from 250 district judges, and requisitioning of judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha to deal with 80 lakh persons facing deletion from the electoral roll in the ongoing SIR exercise in the state.
It took note of Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul’s letter dated February 22 that even if the 250 district judges deployed in the SIR exercise, it would take around 80 days to deal with the claims and objections of those placed in the logical contradiction and unmapped categories.
Logical discrepancies in the offspring associated with the 2002 electoral roll include cases of mismatch in the parent’s name and the age difference between the voter and his parent being less than 15 years or more than 50 years.
While issuing a slew of new directions, CJI Kant took cognizance of the fact that even if each judicial officer deals with 250 complaints and objections per day, it will take around 80 days to complete the exercise. The deadline for West Bengal SIR was 28 February.
On February 9, the apex court made it clear to the states that it would not allow anyone to create any hurdle in the completion of the SIR and directed the WB DGP to file an affidavit on the EC’s claim of burning its notifications by some persons.
Published – March 9, 2026 1:35 PM IST
