By Parmod Kumar
New Delhi, Feb 24 (.) In a significant relaxation of its February 20 order, the Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to additionally deploy Civil Judges (Senior and Junior Division) with at least three years’ experience to adjudicate claims and objections relating to voters in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
A Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi clarified that this direction is in continuation of, and in addition to, its earlier order directing deployment of District Judges and Additional District Judges, including retired judicial officers for the adjudication of claims and objections of the persons included in the “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped” categories.
The fresh directions were issued after the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court informed the apex court that around 250 District and Additional District Judges had been assigned the task of examining nearly 50 lakh claims and objections. Even if each officer disposed of 250 matters daily, it would take about 80 days to complete the exercise.
Taking note of the time constraints, the apex court said further judicial manpower was necessary to complete the work on priority.
The Court also ruled that if the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court still requires more judicial officers, he may approach the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Orissa and Jharkhand to request serving or retired judicial officers of similar rank to assist in the SIR exercise. It requested the Chief Justices of those High Courts to sympathetically and urgently consider such requests.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), the court ordered, will bear travel, boarding and other expenses of officers deputed from Orissa and Jharkhand.
To streamline the verification process, the Court clarified that scrutiny shall be confined to documents specified in earlier notifications and Supreme Court orders — including the October 24 notification commencing SIR in West Bengal, the September 8, 2025 order permitting acceptance of Aadhaar, and the January 19, 2026 order allowing submission of Maadhyamik (Class X) admit cards and pass certificates. All such documents submitted physically or electronically on or before February 14, 2026 must be considered.
It further directed that it will be the responsibility of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs to satisfy the judicial officers regarding the authenticity of the documents.
The Court maintained that the final electoral roll shall be published on February 28, 2026.
If verification of certain claims remains pending, the ECI may publish supplementary lists on a continuous basis.
Invoking its plenary powers under Article 142 of the constitution, the Court declared that voters included in such supplementary lists shall be deemed to have been part of the final roll published on February 28.
On February 20, the Supreme Court had termed the situation “extraordinary” and flagged a trust deficit between the State government and the ECI, leading to judicial supervision of the SIR process.
The Supreme court in its February 20, order had noted that “There seems to be an unfortunate blame game that has since permeated this issue, with allegations and counter-allegations clearly depicting a case of trust deficit between two Constitutional functionaries, namely, a democratically elected State Government and the Election Commission of India (ECI).”
Having flagged the trust deficit between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission of India and terming the “circumstances, being extraordinary”, the court ordered entrusting the task of adjudication of claims and objections to the serving and former judicial officers of the rank of judicial officers of impeccable integrity in the rank of District Judges/Additional District Judges, who can then, in each district, be requested to revisit and dispose of the pending claims under the category of “logical discrepancy/unmapped category”.
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