Form special tribunals to hear appeals of people left out of Bengal SIR, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, directed the setting up of special tribunals to decide appeals against exclusions from the electoral rolls during the West Bengal Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant directed the establishment of the tribunals, reasoning that the decisions of judicial officers appointed as Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in SIR enforcement should not be subject to appeal before any administrative or administrative authority.

The Supreme Court has asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to request former Chief Justices and Supreme Court judges to preside over appellate court Benches after being notified by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The EC will pay salaries to retired judges and cover all costs of the courts.

The top court briefly noted the contents of a communication received from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, which stated that over 500 judicial officers from West Bengal and over 200 judicial officers from the neighboring States of Odisha and Jharkhand were working “day and night, even on Sundays and holidays” to hear objections and demands of voters excluded from the electoral rolls.

10.16 lakh objections have been disposed of as of March 9, 2026, the Chief Justice of Kolkata said, the apex court noted.

additional list

The bench also directed the EC to include additional lists containing the names of voters cleared by judicial officials in the final list published on February 28. These additional lists will be deemed to be available from the date the final voter list is announced.

The court noted that the publication of the supplementary list should be imminent, considering that judicial officers acting as EROs have already disposed of more than 10 lakh objections.

The court added that the grounds for dismissal should be immediately communicated to the voters concerned to facilitate the appeal process without delay.

On February 20, the top court had taken the “extraordinary” decision to include the judiciary in the SIR in West Bengal, saying the ongoing “trust deficit” between the Mamata Banerjee government and the EC had led to a “deadlock” with the expiration of time.

Four days later, the court allowed the deployment of more judicial officers and even warned the neighboring states of Odisha and Jharkhand to protect their judges.

The Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court had found that more than 50 lakh claims and objections raised by voters at that time were pending before the Electoral Registrars/Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (EROs/AEROs) having been excluded due to logical inconsistencies and mapping.

The court had asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to appoint a force of serving and retired judicial officers of “impeccable integrity” in West Bengal to take over the quasi-judicial duties of the EROs/AEROs.

They were tasked with hearing from thousands of voters who found themselves excluded from the West Bengal draft list and received hearing notices after the EC found them “unmapped” or detected “logical inconsistencies” in their personal information. These differences included differences in the spelling of names, age differences between intergenerational family members, and the number of children.