Over 37 Lakh Bengal SIR Appeals Pending: EC
In an affidavit, the poll panel said the Supreme Court-appointed tribunals had disposed of only 1.02 lakh of the 38.20 lakh appeals filed so far.
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has informed the Supreme Court that more than 37 lakh appeals concerning the deletion or inclusion of names in West Bengal’s electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision remain pending.
In an affidavit, the poll panel said the Supreme Court-appointed tribunals had disposed of only 1.02 lakh of the 38.20 lakh appeals filed so far.
A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana had on July 17 entertained a petition filed by Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the West Bengal Congress’ SIR committee.
The petition sought the disclosure of Assembly constituency-wise data on claims and objections filed by voters whose names were deleted during the revision.
The EC said 38,20,683 appeals had been filed against orders relating to the SIR. Of these, 1,02,231 had been disposed of, leaving 37,18,452 pending.
The affidavit did not provide separate figures for appeals filed by people whose names were deleted and those challenging the inclusion of names.
The petitioner said more than 58 lakh voters were excluded during the enumeration phase. While 9.64 lakh applications for inclusion through Forms 6 and 6A and more than 99,000 applications for deletion through Form 7 were received during the claims-and-objections period, only about 1.82 lakh additions were reflected in the final electoral roll published on February 28.
On August 25, the Supreme Court directed the EC to submit data on the pendency and disposal of appeals challenging exclusions or inclusions in the electoral rolls.
Observing that the appeals must be adjudicated in a time-bound manner, the court asked the EC to explain the steps being taken to streamline their disposal and state how many additional tribunals were required.
The EC’s data showed that 34.13 lakh Form 6 applications were filed between December 17, 2025, when the draft roll was published, and August 7, 2026. The figure included first-time applicants as well as voters whose names were deleted during the draft-stage revision.
About 700 judicial officers from West Bengal and neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand were deployed to deal with nearly 60 lakh claims and objections.
Acting on the Supreme Court’s directions, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court subsequently constituted 19 tribunals headed by former chief justices and judges of high courts to decide the appeals.