The Supreme Court on 02 April 2026 declined to permit interim inclusion of voters who failed verification by judicial officers during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, when their appeals are pending before appellate tribunals. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi observed that the appellate process may take some time but the Court cannot allow inclusion of some persons on that basis merely because they appeared in the 2002 electoral roll.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “Persons aggrieved are entitled to file an appeal. Appellate authorities will formulate a fair procedure and natural justice is followed and the final order is passed. That may take a month, that may even take 60 days. We cannot on that contemplation allow some people because they were earlier mapped.” The bench emphasised that verification had already been done at the first instance by judicial officers and the process now had to be frozen at a certain point. It clarified that supplementary electoral rolls would include those cleared during verification, while appellate tribunals would continue to hear appeals separately. The Court said the appeal process should not be rushed.

The matter relates to the batch of pleas challenging the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. On 20 February 2026, the Supreme Court had directed deployment of judicial officers to adjudicate claims and objections relating to inclusion and exclusion of voters, noting a “trust deficit” between the two constitutional authorities. On 28 February 2026, the final voter list of West Bengal was published, with about 63 lakh names deleted. Over 60 lakh names were said to be under adjudication.

Subsequently, on 10 March 2026, the Supreme Court directed constitution of appellate tribunals comprising former High Court Chief Justices and judges to hear appeals against decisions of these judicial officers, in view of the absence of an independent appellate mechanism.

Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the State and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, submitted that out of these 60 lakh cases, data for 44 lakh cases was available. He said the inclusion rate was about 55%, amounting to 24 lakh persons, while the exclusion rate was about 45%, amounting to 20 lakh persons. He pointed out that the rejection rate appeared high despite judicial safeguards and stressed that these were individuals who had been in the voter list in 2002. Divan told the Court that out of the 20 lakh deleted electors, 7 lakh had already filed appeals and several lakh appeals were in the process of being filed. He pointed out that although appellate tribunals were notified on 10 March 2026, they had not become fully operational and only a few cases had been taken up so far.

Divan suggested that appellate tribunals be directed to dispose of all appeals by 15 April 2026 so that the final supplementary electoral roll could be published by 18 April 2026, five days before polling. He further urged that in cases where appeals remain pending beyond 15 April 2026, such voters should be allowed to be included in the rolls to avoid disenfranchisement.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal supported the request and suggested that appellate tribunals be given the power to pass interim orders in cases where a prima facie case is made out. He illustrated that a prima facie case can be made out if the deleted voter has a passport.

However, Justice Bagchi observed that there cannot be an interim relief in such cases. He said the verification had already been done at the first instance by the judicial officers and the process now had to be frozen at a certain point. He said that while supplementary electoral rolls would include those cleared during verification, appellate tribunals would continue to hear appeals separately. The Court declined to pass any order on this issue, with the Chief Justice responding, “We are completely silent on this issue. Let the tribunals evolve their own procedure.”

Case Title: Mostari Banu v. Election Commission of India and Ors.
Case No.: W.P.(C) No. 1089/2025
Date of Order: 02 April 2026
Coram: Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Vipul Pancholi