The Supreme Court of India on Monday directed an appellate tribunal to accord an out-of-turn hearing to a plea challenging deletion from the voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the order while hearing a petition seeking restoration of a voter’s name in the electoral roll of the Diamond Harbour constituency in the poll-bound state.
“The petitioner, being aggrieved by his exclusion from the voter list in the SIR process, is said to have already approached the appellate tribunal on April 2, 2026. We dispose of the instant writ petition with a request to the appellate tribunal to accord out-of-turn hearing and decide the petitioner’s appeal at the earliest,” the bench said.
The order comes amid the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections. While the first phase of polling was held on April 23, the second phase is scheduled for April 29, with counting slated for May 4.
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The apex court had earlier, on April 24, asked appellate tribunals to prioritise cases where voters seek urgent relief against deletion of names from electoral rolls following the SIR exercise.
The bench was also hearing a batch of petitions, including one filed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, relating to the revision of electoral rolls in the state.
In earlier directions, the court had clarified that individuals whose appeals were allowed by appellate tribunals before April 21 or April 27 would be permitted to vote in the first and second phases of polling, respectively. However, it underscored that mere pendency of an appeal would not confer the right to vote.
The first phase of polling witnessed a high voter turnout of 92.72 per cent across 152 constituencies.
To handle the scale of disputes arising from the SIR process, around 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand were deployed to examine nearly 60 lakh claims and objections. Subsequently, 19 tribunals headed by former high court judges were constituted to hear appeals against deletion from voter lists.
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