The Supreme Court on Friday advanced the hearing in the West Bengal electoral roll revision case to October 16.

 

The apex court will decide whether voters challenging their exclusion from the rolls can participate in the state’s municipal elections scheduled for November.

 

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana took up the matter amid concerns that delays in deciding appeals against deletion of names could deprive eligible voters of their franchise in the upcoming polls.

 

The court is considering prioritising appeals seeking restoration of names over those challenging the inclusion of voters in the electoral rolls.

  

“One is that appeals filed by persons seeking deletion of voters can be pushed back and taken up at the last stage,” CJI Kant said, outlining a possible approach to managing the pending cases.

 

The Bench was informed that more than 100,000 appeals seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls had been decided, with 93 per cent of the applicants found eligible for inclusion. However, around 170,000 appeals are pending, the counsel submitted.

 

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing in the matter, urged the court to give priority to appeals involving voters in municipal areas where elections are due in November.

 

He said the appellate tribunals needed adequate time to decide the cases before the election notification, expected by November 15.

 

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, also appearing in the matter, said voters whose appeals remained undecided risked being unable to vote in the municipal elections.

 

He urged the Bench to take up the issue before October 30, the date previously scheduled for the hearing.

 

Sankaranarayanan pointed out that the excluded voters had already missed the Assembly by-elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar held on October 6. The court had declined on September 28 to advance the hearing ahead of those by-elections.

 

The urgency now centres on the municipal elections in Kolkata and Howrah, expected to take place in late November 2026.

 

During the proceedings, Justice Bagchi raised concerns about the technology and procedures governing the appeals process, stressing that the system must ensure fairness.

 

He said the court needed to examine issues relating to the software architecture and the methodology adopted for processing appeals.

 

CJI Kant said concerns raised by members involved in the appeals process also required consideration, indicating that the Bench would have to address multiple issues.

 

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal had led to the deletion of 2.72 million names, according to reports.

 

In March, the Supreme Court directed the constitution of 19 appellate tribunals to adjudicate disputes arising from the revision, including appeals by voters whose names were deleted.

 

The Election Commission of India (ECI) subsequently informed the court that 3.83 million appeals had been filed before the tribunals.

 

Of these, 2.22 million sought restoration of deleted names, while 1.61 million challenged the inclusion of names in the electoral rolls.

 

The Bench agreed to hear the matter on October 16 to examine the pending appeals and the possibility of enabling eligible voters to participate in the forthcoming municipal elections.