Election Commission seeks 42 tribunals to clear 3.7 million West Bengal voter appeals

In a recent affidavit to the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India disclosed that West Bengal faces a backlog of 3.7 million appeals stemming from the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, out of a total of 3.8 million filed. More than 2.2 million appeals seek to overturn voter exclusions, and roughly 1.6 million contest the inclusion of names on the rolls. At present, only 19 election tribunals are processing these cases, which the commission says is insufficient for timely resolution.

To address the surge, it proposes expanding the number of tribunals to 42, aligning each with the state’s parliamentary constituencies. The move responds to a Supreme Court petition filed by Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, who is challenging the legality of the SIR process. The commission emphasized that a larger tribunal network is essential for expeditious disposal of the pending appeals.