“Can Wait, Nothing Happening Now”: Supreme Court on Voter List Revision in West Bengal
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will not take up the issue of voter list revision in West Bengal while hearing the matter of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in poll-bound Bihar.
Following the revision of voter rolls in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is planning to carry out similar exercises in other states, including West Bengal, where assembly elections are due in 2026.
As the controversy over the SIR—challenged in the Supreme Court—intensified, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi observed that the Election Commission has the residual power to conduct such exercises as it deems fit.
Regarding West Bengal, the bench said the state “can wait for the time being” as “nothing is happening there now.” According to Live Law, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in the Bihar case, also made submissions on behalf of Bengal. He told the court that the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal had stated the state was ready for SIR, even without consulting the state government.
Justice Kant said, “[In] State of West Bengal…nothing is happening right now. [West] Bengal can wait for the time being…we will fix a date.”
This remark came in response to senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, a Trinamool Congress MP, who had raised concerns. Banerjee cited a recent incident in which three women attempted self-immolation in front of the Calcutta High Court over fears of being deleted from the voter list.
The bench added, “It’s very difficult for us to examine individual claims. We will go into broad principles, which will be the same for states, subject to local conditions.”
On the Bihar SIR, the Supreme Court emphasised that electoral rolls cannot remain “static” and must be periodically revised. The court noted that expanding the list of acceptable identity documents from seven to eleven was “voter-friendly and not exclusionary.”
“…To our mind, the electoral rolls can never be static. There is bound to be revision,” the bench said. “Otherwise, how will the poll panel delete the names of those who are dead, migrated or shifted to other constituencies?”
Opposition leaders, including the RJD and Congress, along with the NGO ADR, have challenged the electoral roll revision exercise in Bihar.
