Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant further called for creating an atmosphere where these tribunals can maximise their output in the disposal of appeals.
The Supreme Court on March 10, 2026, asked the West Bengal Government and the Election Commission to provide all logistical support to judicial officers in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the State.
The bench said that judicial officers, deployed in the SIR process, so far have dealt with 10.16 lakh objections and claims of those facing deletion from the electoral rolls.
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Monday also marked the final deadline for filing nominations for the 152 constituencies going to polls in the first phase of West Bengal Assembly elections on April 23.
The April 2 order directing deployment of central forces had come after seven judicial officers, including three women, were held hostage for over nine hours at the Kaliachak Block Development Office in Malda district on April 1 by a mob protesting voter name deletions.
The bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipin Pancholi had termed the incident an abdication of duty by the West Bengal government and issued show-cause notices to the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, and DGP.
As of April 6, none of the 19 appellate tribunals constituted by the court had become functional.
The Supreme Court had set up these tribunals, headed by former High Court Chief Justices and judges, to hear appeals against voter exclusions, with sittings at a dedicated 21-chamber judicial hub at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Institute in Kolkata.
According to ECI, around 52 lakh of the roughly 60 lakh cases under adjudication had been disposed of as of April 3, with 8 lakh still pending. Of those disposed, 55 per cent resulted in inclusion and 45 per cent, about 23.4 lakh voters, in exclusion.
ECI further informed the court that supplementary list of remaining voters will be published tonight.
The Special Intensive Revision is an Election Commission of India exercise to verify and update voter lists ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, scheduled on April 23 and April 29, 2026.
Since November 2025, a total of 63,66,952 names have been deleted from the rolls, with another 60,06,675 voters placed under adjudication.
The exercise has faced legal challenges, including a petition by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, centred on the ECI’s use of a “logical discrepancy” category that has resulted in large-scale deletions.
