Supreme Court to hear West Bengal voter roll appeals before November municipal elections

On October 16, the Supreme Court will address a petition seeking to give priority to appeals that aim to restore names deleted during West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, will decide if voters with pending appeals can cast ballots in the municipal elections scheduled for late November in Kolkata and Howrah. Advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Prashant Bhushan highlighted that more than 100,000 inclusion appeals have already been decided, but roughly 170,000 remain pending, risking disenfranchisement.

They asked the court to set a deadline before the October 30 hearing date previously scheduled. Justice Bagchi raised concerns about the software and methodology used by appellate tribunals, urging reforms to ensure fairness. The case follows a Supreme Court order in March that created 19 tribunals to handle the 3.83 million appeals filed after 2.72 million names were deleted.