Kolkata, Sept. 18 -- More than 37 lakh appeals arising from West Bengal's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls remain pending before appellate tribunals, highlighting the scale of the legal challenge faced after the exercise.
The Election Commission has informed the Supreme Court that 38,20,683 appeals have been lodged against orders passed in connection with the SIR. Of these, only 1,02,231 have so far been disposed of, leaving 37,18,452 matters pending.
The figures were placed before a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana in response to a petition by West Bengal Congress SIR committee chairperson Prasenjit Bose. The petition
sought Assembly constituency-wise details of claims and objections concerning electors affected by the revision.
The EC's data also showed that 34.13 lakh Form 6 applications seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls were submitted between publication of the draft roll on December 17, 2025 and August 7, 2026. These included applications from both new voters and people whose names had been left out during the revision.
The Supreme Court had on August 25 sought details of the appeals and directed that their disposal be streamlined and completed within a reasonable timeframe. It also asked the EC to indicate whether additional tribunals were required.
To handle the post-SIR litigation, 19 appellate tribunals were subsequently constituted on the direction of the apex court, with former chief justices and judges of high courts heading them. Earlier, around 700 judicial officers from Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand had been deployed to process claims and objections.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.