West Bengal SIR: SC Agrees To Examine Plea Against Deletion Of Electors From Electoral Rolls
The bench led by CJI Surya Kant was informed that the plea concerned the deletion of erstwhile voters from the rolls.
By Sumit Saxena
Published : March 9, 2026 at 1:15 PM IST
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea by some persons who claimed that the Election Commission of India (ECI) deleted their names from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal.
The plea was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. The bench took note of senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy's submissions. The bench was informed that the plea concerned the deletion of erstwhile voters from the rolls. The senior counsel contended that these are electors who had voted previously, and now their documents have not been accepted.
The bench observed that in the scheme of things, it cannot sit on appeal over the decisions of the judicial officers. The senior counsel pressed that the appeals are maintainable. After hearing brief submissions, the bench agreed to hear the matter on Tuesday.
On February 24, the top court observed that the concerns of both sides— the West Bengal government and the ECI – regarding the SIR exercise are equally important and the court needs to ensure the purity and sanctity of the electoral roll. The apex court ordered that the Calcutta High Court can also deploy civil judges with at least three years of experience to expedite the SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
The top court had noted that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court had apprised the Supreme Court that, even with 294 serving and retired district and additional district judges deployed to scrutinise voter documents flagged under the "logical discrepancy" and "unmapped" categories, the exercise would require nearly 80 days to cover 50 lakh cases.
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