West Bengal SIR: SC To Consider Plea Against ECI’s Decision to Freeze Electoral Rolls Ahead of Polls

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on April 13 a fresh plea along with pending petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to freeze the electoral rolls in West Bengal ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.

The issue was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi. Counsel highlighted that despite multiple appeals pending on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the ECI proceeded to freeze the rolls on April 9.

Justice Bagchi observed that the court would consider the freezing issue on April 13 and pass appropriate orders if necessary.

The development comes days after the ECI finalised and froze the electoral rolls for the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls. Nearly 27 lakh names were reportedly deleted following adjudication by judicial officers during the SIR exercise, with over 45% of the disposed cases resulting in exclusions.

West Bengal is set to hold Assembly elections in two phases — on April 23 and April 29 — with results expected on May 4. The SIR process, aimed at cleaning up the electoral rolls by verifying entries and removing duplicates or ineligible voters, has been mired in controversy, with the state government and petitioners raising concerns over mass deletions and the limited time for appeals.

Earlier hearings saw the Supreme Court declining pleas to delay the freezing of rolls or grant interim voting rights to excluded voters whose appeals are still pending before 19 appellate tribunals. The court had emphasised that tribunal hearings cannot be rushed and that the rolls must be frozen at some point to facilitate smooth conduct of elections.

The fresh plea is expected to focus on the impact of the freezing date on pending appeals and whether further relief can be provided to genuine voters who may have been left out due to procedural issues.

The ECI has maintained that the SIR exercise was conducted transparently with judicial oversight to ensure a clean and accurate voters’ list. Political parties, however, have raised questions about the scale of deletions and its potential effect on voter turnout.