SC notice to EC on Mamata Banerjee’s plea against voter roll revision
SC notice to EC on Mamata Banerjee’s plea against voter roll revision
M.U.H
04/02/202619
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state, and alleging that the process could lead to large-scale disenfranchisement.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, sought the poll body’s response and scheduled the matter for further hearing on Monday.
In her plea, Banerjee has sought urgent interim relief, asking the court to restrain the ECI from deleting the names of voters during the revision exercise, particularly those flagged under the “logical discrepancy” category, while the case remains under judicial scrutiny.
Appearing for the chief minister, senior advocate Shyam Divan argued that the revision was being conducted in undue haste, with only 11 days left for the final publication of electoral rolls on 14 February and just four days remaining to hear objections. He told the court that around 32 lakh voters were “unmapped”, while more than 1.36 crore names had been placed in the logical discrepancy list.
Divan alleged that nearly 70 lakh notices had been issued due to minor spelling differences, often arising from the transliteration of Bengali names into English. He said commonly used documents such as Aadhaar cards, domicile certificates and OBC certificates were allegedly not being accepted, forcing people to stand in queues for hours without clarity on why their names had been flagged.
The bench observed that spelling variations linked to local dialects were a nationwide issue and could not be grounds for excluding genuine voters.
Banerjee was granted permission to address the court directly. Describing herself as a “common person”, she said she was fighting on behalf of ordinary citizens and claimed repeated representations to the ECI had gone unanswered.
She alleged that the SIR exercise was creating discrimination and fear, disproportionately affecting women who change surnames after marriage and people who have shifted residences. The chief minister also claimed West Bengal was being selectively targeted ahead of elections, noting that similar exercises were not underway in some other states.
Banerjee further alleged that the pressure of the process had led to severe stress among election staff, claiming that more than 100 Booth Level Officers had either fallen ill or died, and accused the ECI of acting contrary to earlier Supreme Court directions.
Assuring the petitioner, the bench said the court would look for a “practical solution” and stressed that no genuine voter’s rights could be taken away. “We will not shy away from our responsibility,” the court said, while clarifying that a separate case challenging the overall validity of the SIR process was already pending.
Representing the ECI, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi said the commission had been compelled to appoint micro-observers after the West Bengal government failed to provide sufficient Class-B officers to serve as Electoral Registration Officers, despite repeated requests.
The bench indicated that if the state government supplied a list of officers who could be deputed for SIR duties, the need for micro-observers could be reviewed. It also said the ECI should examine complaints relating to minor name mismatches and avoid issuing notices over trivial spelling errors.
The court directed the Election Commission to file its response by Monday, when the matter will be heard next.
