By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The Final Electoral Roll for West Bengal published by the Election Commission of India on February 28, 2026 under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is still not final. The supplementary list published on March 23 late around midnight has covered only about 29 lakh voters. The judicial officers are still to decide on the names of around 31 lakh voters, that were put under the adjudication list. ECI is yet to clarify how many names were deleted in the supplementary list, however the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal Manoj Agarwal has said that the people who are left out of the electoral roll can challenge the decision in the appellate tribunals to be set up by the Calcutta High Court.
There is also no clarity about the dates for challenging the deletion and when the tribunals will be formed, though nominations are to begin only six days from now from March 30, 2026. The last date of nomination will be April 6, on which, according to law, the electoral roll will be frozen. Under this scenario, it is clear that West Bengal will be going to polls on the basis of an incomplete electoral roll treated as final.
The issue has come up today March 24, 2026 for hearing in the Supreme Court of India, where Senior Advocate Syam Divan appearing on behalf of CM Mamata Banerjee said before the CJI led Bench that everyone wants the process to complete swiftly. However, it seems it will be extremely difficult for judicial officers to complete adjudication because only 27 lakh cases were disposed by the judicial officers by March 23. He suggested that this court may consider freezing of electoral rolls sever days prior to the polling date. He also requested the Bench to consider directing all subsequent supplementary lists to be published on a daily basis. CJI Surya Kant said that most of these are administrative issues which can be taken up by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court who can be approached.
Senior Advocate Kalyan Banerjee said that entire supplementary list is not published. He requested the Bench to consider directing the ECI to give a soft copy of the list to political parties. Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that those were logistical issues. CJI said that 5-6 political parties can go to the adjudicating officer and request for the same.
CJI has pointed out referring a newspaper article he had read that other than West Bengal, SIR process happened smoothly everywhere. On this Kalyan Banerjee said that it’s inhuman what is happening in West Bengal, and that is why we said it will take 2-3 years. Justice Bagchi said, “Do you realise. We have put so much pressure on the judicial officers to complete 16 lakh cases within 45 days!”Thereafter, CJI has put the case for further hearing on April 1 saying, “We will have to wind up early on that day.”
It is worth recalling that the ECI had announced the constitutions of 19 Appellate Tribunals in 24 districts to hear objection on decisions taken by the judicial officers during the ongoing adjudication process in the state under SIR. Gazette notification of the order has to be done by the state government, the ECI has said. To be included in the voters list, there will be limited time available to the aggrieved whose names are deleted. Moreover, the Appellate Tribunals will also have little time left to decide on the appeal. The people whose names were put under the adjudication list are were flooding the BLOs, for the latest status on their names.
Over 6 million voters have been put under adjudication and following an order of the Supreme Court about 730 judicial officers manning subordinate courts in West Bengal, and neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha have been deputed for hearing their cases.
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. 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.
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. (IPA Service)
