The Supreme Court has permitted the Calcutta High Court to deploy civil judges to handle claims and objections from nearly 80 lakh people in West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi noted a letter from the Calcutta High Court chief justice stating that the 250 district judges currently engaged in the SIR process would need around 80 days to address all claims. Given the time constraints, the court allowed civil judges to be deployed to speed up the process.
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The bench also directed the Calcutta High Court to seek assistance from Jharkhand and Odisha high courts and requisition judicial officers of similar rank, with the Election Commission (EC) bearing the associated costs. The SC further allowed the EC to publish the final electoral roll on February 28 while issuing supplementary lists as verification continues. Exercising plenary powers under Article 142, the court permitted voters to be included in the supplementary rolls to ensure they appear in the final list.
The revisions address discrepancies in voter records, such as mismatches in parent names or implausible age differences between voters and their parents when linked to the 2002 voter list.
During the previous hearing on February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court had already directed the Calcutta High Court to depute serving and former judicial officers for the SIR, noting that a trust deficit between the Mamata Banerjee government and the EC had caused a stalemate. Following the SC’s orders, around 250 judicial officers joined the final phase of the SIR on February 23.
The top court’s intervention aims to ensure transparency and the timely completion of the electoral roll revision amid rising political tensions in West Bengal.
