Congress Leader Seeks Supreme Court Intervention on Electoral Roll Data
In a significant legal move, Congress leader Prasenjit Bose has approached the Supreme Court of India, requesting directives for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide detailed data pertaining to voter additions and deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. Bose’s plea seeks transparency in the process, urging the ECI to disclose constituency-wise statistics and to release the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for appeals before the SIR Appellate Tribunals.
Details of the Petition
The petition specifically demands disclosure of the number of Form 6 and Form 7 applications that were submitted, accepted, or rejected in each constituency during the claim and objection phase of the SIR process. Furthermore, it calls for the publication of the SOP established by a three-member committee of former judges as per Supreme Court directives, along with simplified guidelines for the appeal process in the languages of Bengali, Hindi, and English.
Concerns Over Transparency
According to the petition, over 58 lakh voters were removed from the electoral rolls during the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise. Despite this significant number, the Election Commission has not made available the constituency-specific data on applications for name inclusion and deletion. The plea highlights that by January 2026, there were 9.64 lakh applications for name inclusion and 99,118 for deletion, yet only 1.82 lakh names were eventually added to the final electoral rolls published on February 28, 2026.
Challenges in the SIR Process
The petition raises questions about the lack of transparency and public oversight in the SIR process, pointing out the absence of constituency-wise data and the non-publication of formats as per the Election Commission’s Electoral Rolls Manual, 2024. It also criticizes the criteria used to flag over 60 lakh cases for “logical discrepancies,” arguing that these criteria were not part of the SIR notifications or any provision of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
Issues with the Appellate Process
Bose’s petition alleges that despite the Supreme Court’s directive to establish 19 appellate tribunals for handling challenges related to voter rolls, the appellate process is marred by procedural ambiguity. The SOP formulated on April 7 by a committee of former Calcutta High Court judges remains unpublished, and comprehensive guidelines for filing appeals, document production, hearing procedures, or timelines for resolution are unavailable to the public.
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Implications of Voter Roll Deletions
The plea further references a West Bengal government notification under the Annapurna Yojana welfare scheme, which states that individuals removed from the electoral rolls would lose their beneficiary status unless they appealed before the SIR Tribunals. This situation underscores the potential repercussions of erroneous voter roll deletions, extending beyond voting rights to affecting welfare benefits.
Supreme Court’s Previous Rulings
Previously, the Supreme Court had monitored the SIR exercise in West Bengal through orders in the case of Mostari Banu v Election Commission of India, mandating the formation of appellate tribunals led by former High Court judges and ensuring procedural protections for affected individuals. The current petition follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the legality of the Bihar SIR exercise in a judgment dated May 27, which emphasized the importance of “structural correctives” to ensure fairness and prevent arbitrary voter exclusions.
