The Supreme Court on Friday called for responses from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal and West Bengal government on concerns related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The case centres on the huge backlog of appeals in voter list revision and claims that people whose names were deleted from electoral rolls are also being denied access to government welfare schemes.
A Bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana issued notices on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Prasenjit Bose, Chairperson of the SIR Committee of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.
The petition calls for a judicial intervention to improve the functioning of appellate courts that hear SIR-related cases, to improve transparency in the process, and to get the appeals to be resolved within a prescribed process and a timetable to do so.
Concern Over 34 Lakh Pending Appeals
As the petitioner testified, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan told the Supreme Court that about 34 lakh appeals are currently pending before the appellate tribunals which were set up under the SIR exercise and so far only 38,000 appeals have been heard.
The petitioner said that the slow disposal of appeals has left lakhs of people in uncertainty about their voting rights.
Sankaranarayanan argued that the court must issue directions to streamline the appellate process and establish a clear documentary standard for deciding cases, especially since nearly **70 per cent of the appeals heard so far have reportedly been allowed**.
He also noted that the Supreme Court had earlier directed authorities to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for handling SIR appeals, but the document has not yet been made public.
He has over 40 lakh plus appeals pending, he said, and so there are serious concerns.
Lack of Transparency Highlighted
The petitioner also questioned the functioning of the appellate tribunals, stating that only **19 tribunals** are currently handling the massive workload, with two judges having already resigned.
The court was advised that tribunal orders are not being uploaded online and there is no official website where litigants can access previous rulings.
This lack of transparency, the petitioner says, prevents applicants from basing their appeals on previous decisions and therefore from relying on the past while pursuing their own appeals.
"We don't know the SOP they are following," Sankaranarayanan said.
Chief Justice Surya Kant said that although the tribunals are under the supervision of the Calcutta High Court, they are not under its direct administrative control.
Supreme Court Clarifies On Citizenship
One of the most prominent issues in the hearing was whether a person being deleted from the electoral roll might affect a person’s citizenship.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi also said that the Election Commission has **no authority to determine citizenship**.
The Bench said that if the ECI has doubts on an individual’s citizenship, the matter must be referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Citizenship Act.
"Deletion from electoral roll does not lead to loss of citizenship, we have said that clearly," Justice Bagchi said.
Welfare Benefits Under Question
The petitioner also raised concerns that people whose names were removed from electoral rolls were allegedly being denied government welfare benefits including ration services, women’s pension schemes and benefits under the Annapurna Yojana.
The lawyer argued that deletion from the voter list may temporarily affect voting rights, but should not automatically result in withdrawal of welfare schemes unless a person’s citizenship has been legally determined.
"You have taken away the vote... but the other services should not be withdrawn," the petitioner's counsel said before the court.
The PIL also referred to three government orders issued by the West Bengal government since May 2026, which could adversely affect beneficiaries whose names have been deleted during the SIR process.
Supreme Court Issues Notices
After receiving the submissions, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal and the state government to respond to the issues raised in the petition.
The case is expected to have a substantial effect on the SIR process, with regard to electoral roll revision transparency, the timely disposal of appeals and access to welfare schemes in case of disputes over electoral rolls.
