New Delhi, Sept. 18 -- More than 37 lakh appeals against deletion or inclusion of names in West Bengal's electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision remain pending, the Election Commission has told the Supreme Court. The poll panel, in its response affidavit, said the apex court-appointed tribunals have disposed of only about 1.02 lakh of the 38.20 lakh appeals filed so far. On July 17, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana entertained a plea filed by Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the SIR committee of the West Bengal Congress, on the issue.
The bench had sought the poll panel's response on the plea, which sought disclosure of Assembly constituency-wise data of claims and objections filed by the voters deleted during the SIR exercise. The poll panel, in its affidavit, said that 38,20,683 appeals had been filed against orders relating to the SIR of electoral rolls. Of these, 1,02,231 appeals had been disposed of, leaving 37,18,452 pending, it added. The affidavit, however, did not provide a break-up of the appeals filed by electors whose names were deleted and those filed against the inclusion of names in the electoral rolls. More than 58 lakh electors were excluded during the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise in West Bengal, Bose had said in the petition, adding that while 9.64 lakh applications for inclusion (Forms 6 and 6A) and over 99,000 applications for deletion (Form 7) were received during the claims and objections phase, only around 1.82 lakh additions were reflected in the final electoral roll published on February 28.
On August 25, the top court directed the Election Commission to submit data on the pendency and disposal of appeals by tribunals challenging exclusion or inclusion in electoral rolls. Observing that they need to be adjudicated in a time-bound manner, the bench had asked the poll panel to explain what steps are being taken to streamline the mechanism for disposing of pending appeals and how many additional tribunals are required. The EC data submitted to the court showed that 34.13 lakh Form 6 applications had been filed between December 17, 2025, when the draft electoral roll was published, and August 7, 2026. Form 6 is the statutory application for inclusion of a name in the electoral roll.
The figure includes applications from people seeking registration for the first time as well as electors whose names had been deleted during the draft-stage revision. On April 24, the apex court asked the appellate tribunals to give out-of-turn hearing to those who make a case of urgent hearing against deletion from electoral rolls after the SIR. Approximately 700 judicial officers from West Bengal and neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand were deployed to deal with around 60 lakh claims and objections. Later, the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, on the direction of the top court, set up 19 tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and judges to decide the appeals.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.