By Dr Gyan Pathak
The announcement of election to the five Legislative Assemblies – Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry – on March 15, 2026, marks the arrogance of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and helplessness of the Supreme Court of India, that is yet to announce its final verdict on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, and under whose direction SIR of West Bengal is still going on after the publication of final electoral roll on February 28, 2026.
Supreme Court of India had to accept the Final List of February 28, 2026, even when it was under objection and revision phase, and the fate of millions of voters were hanging in the balance. Under the law, electoral rolls are to be ready before the announcement of the election schedule, against which Election Commission of India, and the PM Narendra Modi led government were able to push their agenda without caring much for the Supreme Court.. Supreme Court has only one saving grace that it has directed and allowed supplementary list which should be published continuously until the last date of nomination for the Assembly elections.
Obviously, the Supreme Court did not see the injustice in its order in respect to those electorate who could not contest election on account of their names not published until the last date of nomination for any reason whatsoever. Contesting election is a right of a citizen just like the right to vote. Many of them will be prevented to do so, and many of whom will not even able to cast their votes, on account of their failing into get their names into the voter list in time.
According to the press release of the ECI, the last date for making nominations for the first phase of election is April 6 and for the second phase is April 9, for which date of gazette notifications are March 30 and April 2 respectively. The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said on March 15 that supplementary voter lists in West Bengal will be issued as judicial officers adjudicate cases of doubtful voters flagged in the SIR exercise.
It is worth recalling that over 6 million voters have been put under adjudication and following an order of the Supreme Court some 530 judicial officers manning subordinate courts in West Bengal, and neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha have been deputed for hearing their cases. During the press conference for announcing the election schedule, the CEC said, “As per the orders of the Supreme Court, the judges working under the directions of the Calcutta High Court would be bringing out this supplementary list, and as and when the names come out, they shall be included in the existing list of electors.”
ECI said in its press release announcing the election that there were 6,45,61,152 electors in West Bengal as per the final voter list of the state out of which 6,44,52,609 were general and 1,08,543 were service voters. It said it its footnote that these may get augmented on account of publication of supplementary lists in pursuance of orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, the final electoral roll for West Bengal published on February 28, had 7,04,59,284 electors, which was significantly lower than 7.66 crore before the SIR exercise in the state. Names of about 66 lakh voters were deleted which was roughly 8 per cent of the names in the earlier voter list. The election announcement says that there were 6.45 crore electors much below the 7.04 crore included in the final electoral roll. It means name of over 60 lakh people were hanging on the balance when election schedule was announced.
No law of the country permits announcement of election even when the electoral roll is not finalised. What is being done in the case of Bengal is just violation of the laws of the land and an effort to just facilitate what is illegal – that is announcement of election without a final electoral roll. It is another matter that the ECI and Supreme Court accepted the roll final when it was actually not final.
Why ECI should call an incomplete electoral roll as Final Electoral Roll and why should the Supreme Court allow it? Modi government, ECI, and Supreme Court might have their convenient answers other that the stark realities on the ground. Original deadline for filing claims and objection on the draft electoral roll was January 15, and original final publication date was January 31. Since ECI could not complete the process, the date of hearing was extended to February 21, and Final SIR electoral roll to February 28.
ECI could not complete the hearing on claims and objections, but published the incomplete list as Final Electoral Roll on February 28, as per the order of the Supreme Court. Surprisingly, Supreme Court accepted that its order was carried by the ECI, which was de-facto wrong. The published electoral roll was still incomplete but deemed final, in legal terms, but it was crystal clear even then, and even now that in reality it is incomplete. If you have power, you can brand and incomplete thing “final” despite it is still being in preparation.
To avoid a constitutional crisis, because West Bengal Vidhan Sabha is to expire on May 7, ECI and Supreme Court may have accepted the incomplete voter list published on February 28 as final. But then it was not reality, though they have accepted it as final. However, avoidance of the constitutional crisis may not be the sole criterion, because Supreme Court had power to order election on old electoral roll, if the new one was incomplete.
It is therefore clear that Supreme Court has also been for the SIR as the Modi Government and the ECI are. In September 2025, when petitioners against SIR for Bihar requested to stop the SIR process in the state until final decision of its validity, the Supreme Court said that they can’t stop the process, but if they will find it invalid the entire process could be quashed. The Supreme Court is yet to come out with its final decision on its validity, elections were held with lakhs of deleted voters, and the new government is in place.
The Supreme Court’s sense of urgency of a case is quite different from the sense of urgency of the people. For common people, if you can’t undo an injustice, you can’t allow it to happen, and therefore the case must be heard urgently and decided immediately. We have seen in Bihar that many people could not vote because they were disenfranchised that was denial of their right. Who cast their votes can’t uncast it, and the government that ruled the state can’t be unruled. Everything happened when the issue of validity of the SIR is not settled yet. What is now option before the Supreme Court? Since it can’t undo the injustice already done in Bihar, there will be no point in deciding that SIR was invalid.
Similar pattern is being seen in West Bengal, where the election has been announced on an incomplete electoral roll which ECI call final, Supreme Court agrees, the process of adjudication will continue until last day of submission of nominations, the day on which final supplementary list will come out, which will prevent many to vote and many to contest. Legality of SIR is yet to be decided by the Supreme Court.
The manner in which everything is being done, suggests that the Centre is able to push through its agenda, ECI has become completely arrogant , and the Supreme Court is helpless. SIR is being pushed through with little intervention by the Supreme Court, just modifying the agenda of the Modi government which ECI is simply carrying out. The public see the posturing of every institution and not happy about the manner the issue of SIR is being handled with net effect of facilitating it, even at the cost of injustice. It is totally unethical and illegal that an incomplete electoral roll, with all sorts of discrepancies, should be treated final and election be announced, conducted, result declared, and government formed on that basis with Supreme Court sitting over the decision on the validity of SIR. The entire episode presents a picture of mockery of free and fair election. (IPA Service)
