Over 37 Lakh SIR Appeals Still Pending in West Bengal Tribunals, EC Tells Supreme Court
EC affidavit reveals 37.18 lakh of 38.2 lakh SIR appeals pending in West Bengal tribunals, with only 1.02 lakh decided.
The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that more than 37 lakh appeals arising from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal remain undecided before 19 appellate tribunals. According to an affidavit dated September 16, of the 38,20,683 appeals filed across 24 districts, only 1,02,231 have been disposed of, leaving 37,18,452 pending.
The disclosure follows a Supreme Court direction asking the poll body to provide exact figures on pendency and disposal, and to segregate appeals filed by voters seeking re-inclusion from those filed by the Commission or other objectors seeking further exclusions. The court had said it would decide on constituting additional tribunals once the data was available.
The affidavit contains district-wise annexures. In Murshidabad, 7,47,921 appeals were filed and just 514 decided. Uttar Dinajpur has 3,03,155 appeals pending with 9,104 disposed of, while Malda has 5,31,345 appeals filed and 1,514 decided. In Purba Bardhaman, only 131 of 2,80,029 appeals have been resolved.
The statistics emerged after petitioners complained that details of tribunal pendency and disposal rates were not being made public. During an August 28 hearing, the petitioner side relied on a Right to Information response to highlight the backlog, and submitted that only about seven lakh of the 38 lakh appeals were filed by disenfranchised voters, with the remaining 31 lakh filed by the Commission or other objectors seeking exclusions.
The court had observed that exclusion from the electoral roll deprives citizens of voting rights, and asked the Commission to consider a mechanism to update and streamline the progress of pending appeals. The Commission, in its affidavit, said the appellate mechanism and accessibility fall within the Standard Operating Procedures governing the tribunals and the authorities administering them, and that measures concerning their functioning are best left to the tribunals concerned under the applicable framework.
More than six months have passed since the Supreme Court constituted the appellate tribunals. With municipal elections in the state approaching, the fate of a large number of voters remains unresolved.