The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday a set of petitions questioning the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, including one filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. According to the cause list available on the apex court’s website, a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi will take up the matter.
Sources to PTI indicate that Banerjee may personally attend the hearing and present arguments. An application has already been moved seeking permission for her to appear as a “party in person.” The chief minister holds an LLB degree from Jogesh Chandra Choudhury College of Law, Calcutta, and was last reported to have practised law in 2003.
Banerjee filed her petition on January 28, naming the Election Commission (EC) and the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer as respondents.
Supreme Court’s earlier directions
On January 19, the top court issued a series of directions concerning the conduct of the SIR process in the state. The bench observed that the exercise must be transparent and should not create inconvenience for voters.
The court instructed the EC to display the names of people listed under “logical discrepancies” at gram panchayat bhavans and block offices. These centres, the court said, should also serve as locations where documents and objections can be submitted.
The bench noted that around 1.25 crore voters in West Bengal have been flagged under the “logical discrepancies” category. It directed that adequate manpower be provided by the state government to assist election authorities and ensure smooth processing of claims and objections.
What are 'logical discrepancies'?
The discrepancies relate to progeny-linking with the 2002 voter list. These include cases where there is a mismatch in the parent’s name or where the age gap between a voter and their parent is less than 15 years or more than 50 years.
Petitioners have argued that this classification has no clear statutory basis and has been introduced without formal written guidelines.
Banerjee’s objections to the EC
Before approaching the Supreme Court, Banerjee had written to the Chief Election Commissioner urging him to stop what she described as an “arbitrary and flawed” SIR process in a poll-bound state.
She warned that continuing the exercise in its present form could lead to “mass disenfranchisement” and could “strike at the foundations of democracy”.
In a strongly worded letter dated January 3 to CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Banerjee accused the EC of overseeing an “unplanned, ill-prepared and ad hoc” exercise marked by “serious irregularities, procedural violations and administrative lapses”.
TMC leaders’ petitions and claims
Apart from Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, along with petitioner Mostari Banu, have also moved the Supreme Court.
O’Brien has filed an application in his pending petition challenging the EC’s order and guidelines directing SIR in various states, including West Bengal.
The application alleges that instructions to field officers have been conveyed through “informal and extra-statutory channels”, such as WhatsApp messages and oral directions during video conferences, instead of through formal written orders.
“The ECI cannot act arbitrarily, capriciously or dehors law, nor can it substitute legally prescribed and set procedures with ad hoc or informal mechanisms,” the application states.
Demand on final electoral roll
O’Brien’s application further claims that the poll panel has created and deployed the “logical discrepancies” category without any written order or guideline to “issue/decide to issue notices to 1.36 crore electors without any statutory basis”.
The petition also seeks a direction that the final electoral roll should be published only after all claims, objections and hearings arising from the SIR process are fully disposed of.
The outcome of Wednesday’s hearing is expected to have a significant bearing on the future course of the SIR exercise in West Bengal.
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