The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will hear the case concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal on October 16. .Pertinently, the Court on that date will consider whether voters excluded during the SIR process and who have filed appeals against the exclusion, should be allowed to vote for the upcoming municipal elections in the State..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana advanced the hearing amid concerns that voters whose appeals against exclusion from the electoral rolls remain pending may miss the November municipal elections.The Court also discussed prioritising appeals seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls over those seeking deletion of voters. "There are two priorities we are contemplating. One is that appeals filed by persons seeking deletion of voters can be pushed back and taken up at the last stage," said CJI Kant..The Court was informed that more than one lakh appeals seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls had been decided, with 93% of applicants found eligible for inclusion. Around 1.70 lakh appeals remain pending, counsel told the Court.Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing in the matter, urged the Court to prioritise appeals concerning voters in municipal areas where elections are due in November. He said that tribunals would need sufficient time to decide these appeals, adding that the elections would be notified by November 15..Advocate Prashant Bhushan, also appearing in the matter, highlighted the that voters, whose appeals remain undecided, might not be able to vote in the upcoming elections.“These are deleted voters on whose behalf the petitions have been filed. Their appeals are pending before the tribunals. Municipal elections are due in November. The question is whether they will be able to vote in those elections,” he said.The Court said that it was already considering the issue and would examine whether a solution could be found at the next hearing..The urgency stemmed from the upcoming municipal elections in Kolkata and Howrah, expected to be held in late November 2026.According to reports, the SIR exercise had led to the deletion of 27.16 lakh names from West Bengal's electoral rolls. In March, the Supreme Court had directed the constitution of 19 appellate tribunals to hear appeals arising from the revision of the electoral rolls, including challenges by voters whose names had been deleted.The Election Commission of India (ECI) subsequently informed the Supreme Court that 38.31 lakh appeals have been filed before the appellate tribunals. Of these, 22.21 lakh sought the restoration of deleted names, while 16.10 lakh challenged the inclusion of names in the electoral rolls.The issue had also come up before the Supreme Court ahead of the October 6 Assembly by-elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar. On September 28, the Court declined to advance the hearing on the pending SIR appeals, despite concerns that excluded voters could miss those by-elections. .During Friday's proceedings, Sankaranarayanan pressed for an earlier hearing, pointing out that voters already missed the by-elections.“We have already missed the by-elections. The matter was listed on October 5. We now need to have the voters' register,” he said.Bhushan also urged an early hearing, saying October 30, the date previously fixed by the Court, could be too late given the municipal elections scheduled for November..Additionally, during the hearing, Justice Bagchi also flagged concerns about the technology and methodology used in the appeals process.“Technology, methodology and fairness have to match. There is certain feedback intrinsically related to issues that we need to thrash out, including the architecture of the software,” said Justice Bagchi.CJI Kant added that the Court would also need to examine concerns raised by members involved in the appeals process.“Yes, some of the members have also expressed concerns. There is more than one issue that needs to be addressed,” he said..Taking note of the impending municipal elections and the large number of pending appeals, the Court ultimately agreed to advance the hearing to October 16 (Friday)..[Read Live Coverage]
