Bengal Voter List: SC Says It Cannot Intervene in Exclusion of Voters; Petition Dismissed

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed West Bengal government's plea to defer the freezing of the electoral rolls ahead of the state assembly elections, offering no immediate relief to lakhs of voters whose names were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list.

The order was passed by a bench presided over by Chief Justice Suryakant. Millions of voters had been removed from the rolls as part of an exercise to rectify what the Election Commission described as "logical defects" in the list.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the state government, argued that the deletions amounted to a violation of voters' rights and sought an extension of the freeze deadline until pending appeals were disposed of. The court, however, held that modifying the voter list at this stage — with the election process already underway — was not practical.

The court noted that nearly 60 lakh complaints had been received regarding errors in the voter list, of which approximately 59.15 lakh had already been resolved. It permitted the voter list to be frozen on April 6, the last date for filing nomination papers for the first phase of polling.

To provide recourse to those who remain excluded, the court directed the constitution of special tribunals headed by senior judges to hear appeals from affected voters.

The Supreme Court had earlier intervened in a dispute between the Election Commission and the Bengal government, appointing judicial officers to oversee the voter list revision process. The court also commended the judicial officers for their commendable work in examining the voluminous complaints received from voters.