More than 37 lakh appeals against deletion or inclusion of names in West Bengal’s electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) remain pending, the Election Commission (EC) informed the Supreme Court. Of the 38.20 lakh appeals filed to date, only about 1.02 lakh have been disposed of by the apex court‑appointed tribunals.
On 17 July, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana heard a plea from Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the West Bengal Congress SIR committee, seeking disclosure of Assembly constituency‑wise data on claims and objections made by voters whose names were deleted during the SIR exercise. The bench directed the EC to provide this information and to explain how it plans to streamline the disposal of pending appeals.
The EC’s affidavit detailed that 38,20,683 appeals were filed against SIR orders, with 1,02,231 disposed of, leaving 37,18,452 pending. More than 58 lakh electors were excluded during enumeration; 9.64 lakh applications for inclusion (Forms 6 and 6A) and over 99,000 for deletion (Form 7) were received, yet only about 1.82 lakh additions appeared in the final roll published on 28 February. Between 17 December 2025 and 7 August 2026, 34.13 lakh Form 6 applications were filed.
In response to the court’s directives, 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand were deployed to handle roughly 60 lakh claims. The Calcutta High Court, following the Supreme Court’s order, set up 19 tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and judges to adjudicate urgent deletion cases and to expedite the overall process.
