West Bengal SIR: 22.21 Lakh of 27.16 Lakh Deleted Voters Appeal Against Removal, Election Commission Tells Supreme Court
The Election Commission of India has told the Supreme Court that 22.21 lakh of the 27.16 lakh voters whose names were deleted from West Bengal’s electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have filed appeals seeking their inclusion. The figure means that about 82% of the voters removed through the adjudication process have challenged their exclusion.
The figures were disclosed in the Election Commission’s response to an application filed by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien. According to the EC, a total of 38.31 lakh appeals have been filed before the appellate tribunals constituted for the SIR process. Of these, 22.21 lakh concern voters seeking restoration of names that were deleted.
The remaining 16.10 lakh appeals were filed against the inclusion of voters and seek further deletions from the electoral rolls. The EC did not specify who filed those appeals, noting that an elector or an electoral official can seek deletion of a person believed to be ineligible.
The scale of the appeals has become a central issue before the Supreme Court because the tribunals have been unable to dispose of the cases at the same pace at which they were filed. Earlier EC figures showed that more than 37 lakh appeals remained pending after only about 1.02 lakh had been disposed of.
The West Bengal SIR exercise involved scrutiny of 60.06 lakh electors whose records had been flagged for what the Election Commission described as “logical discrepancies”. Around 700 judicial officers were tasked with adjudicating their eligibility, ultimately resulting in 27.16 lakh names being ordered to be deleted while the remaining electors were retained.
The Supreme Court had subsequently ordered the creation of appellate tribunals to provide a mechanism for voters to challenge those decisions. Nineteen tribunals were established and began functioning in April 2026, shortly before the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The pace of restoration before the Assembly elections was particularly limited. According to the EC’s account before the court, only 1,607 electors had been reinstated through the tribunals in time to vote in the 2026 Assembly polls, leaving the overwhelming majority of appeals unresolved at the time of voting.
The latest affidavit also proposes expanding the appellate mechanism. The Election Commission has suggested increasing the number of tribunals so that their number corresponds with West Bengal’s 42 parliamentary constituencies, with the stated objective of expediting disposal of the large backlog.
The Commission has additionally indicated that the tribunals could make greater use of video conferencing. According to its submission, software developed by the EC is location-agnostic and allows judicial officers to conduct hearings and other proceedings remotely.
The Supreme Court has been seeking more precise data on the appeals, including the distinction between voters challenging their exclusion and persons seeking further deletions. The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant is examining whether additional tribunals and other procedural measures are necessary to clear the backlog.
The disclosure that more than four-fifths of the deleted voters have appealed gives the court a clearer picture of the scale of the dispute. At the same time, the existence of an appeal does not itself establish that a voter was wrongly deleted; the merits of individual cases remain to be determined through the appellate process.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the matter further on September 22. The proceedings are expected to focus on the number and status of pending appeals, the functioning and capacity of the tribunals, and the mechanisms available to voters seeking restoration of their names to the electoral rolls.
