On Tuesday, 10 March, the Supreme Court ordered the creation of independent appellate tribunals, led by former high court judges, to hear appeals against exclusions from voter lists during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

The Court also issued a strong warning against attempts to undermine judicial officers handling claims and objections from those facing deletion from the electoral rolls as part of the SIR.

Following the order, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee temporarily suspended her dharna in Kolkata protesting the “flawed SIR.” She said, “We had launched the dharna for two reasons—the arbitrary deletion of names and to ensure that genuine voters get their names restored in the electoral rolls.”

Banerjee, who filed her Supreme Court petition as a “common citizen,” expressed hope that the judiciary would protect genuine voters. “The Supreme Court’s decision has opened the door for justice and brought a new ray of hope for the people whose names were deleted or under adjudication due to a logical discrepancy under SIR,” she said.

The bench, including Chief Justice of India and Justices R. Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi, strongly rejected a petition seeking to prevent judicial officers from dealing with deletion claims. The CJI remarked, “How did you dare file such applications? It shows as if you don’t have trust... No one should dare question the judicial officers. As Chief Justice of India, I will not tolerate this.”

By the evening of 9 March, judicial officers had processed over 10.16 lakh objections related to deletions. District and civil judges from West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha were deployed by the Court to handle approximately 80 lakh claims and objections.

The apex court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) not to impose any mandatory requirements that could disrupt the process unless approved by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. It also ordered the resolution of technical issues affecting the online portal and called for creation of new login IDs for judicial officers to facilitate smooth workflow.

The Court clarified that decisions of judicial officers cannot be appealed by administrative officials of the Election Commission, ensuring judicial independence.

The Calcutta High Court Chief Justice was instructed to recommend former high court chief justices and two or three former high court judges, preferably from Calcutta or neighbouring states, to serve on the appellate tribunals. The ECI will then notify them as members of the tribunal. The size of each bench is at the discretion of the Calcutta High Court chief justice.

Senior advocates raised concerns about the absence of a proper appellate mechanism for rejected claims and the publication of supplementary voter lists despite over 10 lakh objections.

According to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice, about 500 judicial officers from West Bengal and 200 from Odisha and Jharkhand are working round the clock. As of 8 March, some 700 login IDs had been created to mobilise officers in sensitive districts.

(With agency inputs)