Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The West Bengal Congress Committee has approached the Supreme Court seeking reliefs with respect to Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the state.

The matter was mentioned today before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, seeking listing tomorrow on the ground that pleas challenging SIR are already due to come up tomorrow.

Initially, Justice Kant said that the bench is only seized of Bihar SIR matter and the prerogative to list matter pertaining to West Bengal SIR before any bench lies with CJI BR Gavai. However, when the counsel pointed out that a petition related to Tamil Nadu is also listed before the bench tomorrow, Justice Kant said, "alright, we will find out".

Notably, a PIL challenging West Bengal SIR is also pending before the Calcutta High Court. The petitioner in this case has sought extension of the SIR deadline as well as conduct of SIR under the supervision of the Court. Recently, the High Court asked the Election Commission to file an affidavit detailing the process by which SIR is being implemented in the state.

It may be recalled that besides the Bihar SIR matter, the Supreme Court is set to hear tomorrow a petition filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) against SIR in Tamil Nadu after an urgent listing request was allowed by CJI Gavai last Friday.

In August, during the hearing of the Bihar SIR matter, the Court was told about a statement made by the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal that the State was ready for SIR, without any consultation with the State Government. However, the Court refused to take up the issue saying nothing was happening at that time. In response to a submission that 3 women had attempted suicide (by self-immolation) before the Calcutta High Court over apprehension of voter list deletion, Justice Kant said, "It's very difficult for us to examine individual claims. We will go into broad principles, which will be same for states, subject to local conditions".

State of West Bengal is scheduled to have its Assembly elections in 2026.