Supreme Court Flags Concerns in SIR of West Bengal Voter List

April 13, 2026 - The Supreme Court on Monday (April 13) flagged concerns about errors in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, noting a possible “margin of error” in deleting voters’ names during the SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal. 

A two-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing pleas filed by voters whose names had been struck off the voters’ list in the State. The Bench ruled that voters have a right to remain on voter lists and the process must not be distorted because of the pressure of elections.

Justice Bagchi said it is unrealistic to expect 100% accuracy when officials handle massive volumes of cases daily. Therefore, a “robust appellate mechanism” is essential to correct wrongful deletions.

“If the accuracy is 70 percent then the activity should be rated as excellent…. there will always be a margin of error,” the judge observed.

The Court, however, raised a serious democratic concern that if a large percentage of voters are excluded, and the winning margin is small, then the issue could become legally significant.

"If 10% of electorate does not vote and winning margin is more than 10%...what will happen? Suppose margin is 2% and 15% of electorate who are mapped could not vote, then maybe, we are not expressing any opinion, but we would definitely have to apply our minds. Please keep this in mind that the concern of a vigilant voter whose name correctly or incorrectly is not in the list is not in our minds," Justice Bagchi told the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Justice Bagchi also flagged inconsistency in SIR observing that the ECI had introduced a new category of “logical discrepancy” for West Bengal SIR which was not present for other States.

However, despite the concerns, the Court refused to directly intervene in individual voter deletion cases and called such petitions premature. The Bench directed affected people to approach designated Appellate Tribunals instead and refused to extend the April 9 deadline for freezing the voter list.

The petitions of affected voters, which are already pending before Appellate Tribunals, had sought extension of the deadline.

Additionally, CJI Kant passed orders for security of judicial officers handling SIR cases to continue until elections end and not to be withdrawn without Court’s orders. Central forces deployed in the State will also continue for now.

With Media Inputs

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