Supreme Court To Hear Mamata Banerjee Plea Challenging Bengal SIR Today

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday a plea filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and several leaders of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.

According to the cause list of the apex court, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and comprising Justices R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi will hear the matter.

Apart from Banerjee, TMC MPs Dola Sen and Derek O’Brien have also filed petitions challenging the revision exercise.

In her petition, Banerjee has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting with political bias. She alleged that the way the SIR exercise is being conducted could lead to the deletion of the names of lakhs of voters belonging to marginalised sections.

The plea argues that the process disproportionately affects vulnerable groups and seeks directions from the court to ensure that genuine voters are not excluded from the electoral rolls.

Court Had Earlier Intervened

During the previous hearing, the apex court intervened to address a deadlock between the West Bengal government and the poll body regarding the revision exercise. It directed that judicial officers be involved in deciding claims and objections filed by voters.

The Bench led by CJI Surya Kant asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to nominate serving and some retired judicial officers of the rank of Additional District Judge to assist in adjudicating the claims.

The court also directed that officials of the Election Commission and the West Bengal government would assist these judicial officers during the process.

Steps To Deal With A Large Number Of Cases

The Supreme Court further allowed judicial officers from neighbouring High Courts, including Jharkhand High Court and Orissa High Court, to be deputed to West Bengal to expedite the process.

This direction followed submissions by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court that nearly 80 lakh applications involving categories such as “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped voters” required adjudication, while only around 250 judicial officers were available.

Invoking powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, the Bench clarified that the poll body could proceed with the publication of the final electoral roll even if some cases remain pending. It added that voters included later in supplementary lists would be treated as part of the final electoral roll.

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