Supreme Court learns only 7 lakh of 27 lakh West Bengal voter deletions appealed

In New Delhi, senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan briefed a Supreme Court bench that only 7 lakh of the roughly 27 lakh voters removed from West Bengal electoral rolls for "logical discrepancy" have appealed for restoration. While a total of 38.1 lakh appeals have been lodged before SIR appellate tribunals, an overwhelming 31 lakh aim to keep names excluded, highlighting a skew toward exclusion requests. The court noted that 19 tribunals have resolved merely 82,000 appeals in the past four months, leaving a massive backlog of 37 lakh pending cases.

It directed the Election Commission to provide a breakdown of appeals seeking inclusion versus exclusion and to propose mechanisms—such as increasing tribunal numbers—to speed up decisions, particularly before the December Kolkata and Howrah civic elections. Petitioners including Congress member Prasenjit Bose argued that many exclusion appeals are mechanically filed by the EC against judicial orders and should not be entertained. The bench also asked the EC to detail steps taken to add names whose appeals have been granted.