Supreme Court to hear West Bengal SIR pleas on October 5, a day before bypolls

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the West Bengal Special Intensive Revision (SIR) matter on October 5, a day before bypolls are held in two Assembly constituencies in the State. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant was told during oral mentioning that the case had earlier been listed for September 29.

Counsel appearing before the Bench submitted that bypolls to the Nandigram and Rejinagar constituencies are scheduled for October 6, and that thousands of appeals filed by voters against their exclusion from the electoral roll are still awaiting a decision. The lawyer said those affected were being denied their vote for a second time, pointing to the April 2026 Legislative Assembly elections, after which the BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari came to power.

The Chief Justice observed that the matter concerned only bypolls and said the appeals would not be removed from the causelist on October 5, though the hearing was not advanced.

The court's decision comes amid a heavy backlog of appeals generated by the SIR exercise. An affidavit filed by the Election Commission of India in the Supreme Court disclosed that of the 27 lakh voters removed from the electoral roll during the exercise, more than 22 lakh had challenged their exclusion. The poll body put the number of such appeals at 22,21,118, a figure that stands out because judicial officers were deployed during the verification phase to adjudicate claims and objections.

The affidavit stated that 16.10 lakh appeals were filed against inclusion. In all, 38.31 lakh appeals were filed before the tribunals. As of September, the 19 tribunals had disposed of only 1,26,194 appeals, leaving more than 37.05 lakh pending.

The Election Commission has said it is open to a suggestion from the court to raise the number of appellate tribunals from 19 to 42.