The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the appointment of judicial officers to help complete the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal amid a tussle between the state and the Election Commission, The Hindu reported.
The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin Pancholi was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the conduct of the exercise in the state. West Bengal is among the 12 states and Union Territories where the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway.
The bench said that there was an “unfortunate blame game of allegations and counter-allegations” between the state government and the Election Commission, “which shows trust deficit between two constitutional functionaries”, Bar and Bench reported.
The state’s draft electoral rolls were published on December 16. They showed that more than 58 lakh voters were removed after being marked dead, shifted or absent.
The deletion from the draft roll is provisional and citizens can file claims and objections against the removal of their names.
On Friday, the court observed that the process was “stuck” and that most persons who had been issued notices had submitted documents to support their claims for inclusion in the voter list.
The claims were required to be adjudicated in a quasi-judicial process by electoral registration officers, it noted.
The bench requested the Calcutta High Court to allow some of its serving and retired judicial officers of the rank of district judge or additional district judge, with “impeccable integrity”, to help with the voter roll revision, The Hindu reported.
The officers will “revisit/dispose of claims/objections under logical discrepancy”, the court was quoted as having said.
“Logical discrepancies” flagged by the Election Commission during the voter list revision include mismatches in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six.
The poll panel had earlier said that it has raised logical discrepancy objections against 1.2 crore persons.
On Friday, Kant said that the “extraordinary” measure announced was required to ensure that the claims and objections are adjudicated “as agreed to by both sides”. He added that each judicial officer be assisted by micro-observers appointed by the Election Commission and state officials deputed to the poll panel, The Hindu reported.
Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal government, said that the state had no problem with judicial officers being appointed for the task, Live Law reported.
The Supreme Court noted that the deployment of judicial officers “may have some impact on the pending court cases”.
Therefore, it allowed the chief justice of the High Court, and the registrar general and judicial officers there to transfer cases for immediate relief to other courts till the voter list revision exercise is completed.
The Supreme Court said that the Election Commission must publish on February 28 whatever has been processed and that the remaining rolls can be published as supplementary lists, The Hindu reported.
Sibal was quoted as having requested the court not to do that, arguing that it would lead to a law and order problem in the state.
After the Supreme Court’s order, the Trinamool Congress said that the court had demolished the Election Commission’s “bloated arrogance”.
“The Supreme Court just delivered the knockout punch,” the party said in a social media post. “All claims, objections and logical discrepancy cases will now be handled by impartial judicial officers.”
It added: “This is a blow to an Election Commission that ditched its scared constitutional duty and morphed into a partisan hit squad serving [the Bharatiya Janata Party’s] vested interests.”
In her petition, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has raised concerns that the exercise poses an immediate and irreversible risk of mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the Assembly elections.
She has sought the court’s direction that the elections be conducted on the basis of the existing electoral rolls prepared last year.
The Assembly elections in the state are expected to be held in April or May.
HUGE VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE OF BENGAL!
Today marks a historic demolition of @ECISVEEP's bloated arrogance. The CEC once strutted around like an untouchable overlord, convinced his word was final. That delusion has been shattered into oblivion.
Roll observers had been… pic.twitter.com/vRjT2vBHHq
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) February 20, 2026
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