New Delhi, April 16
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India to ensure that wherever claims of excluded voters are allowed by the Appellate Tribunals before the polling dates between April 23 and 29, their names are incorporated in a supplementary revised electoral rolls to entitle them to exercise their right to vote.
The decision, originally pronounced during the April 13 hearing in the West Bengal SIR case, has been formally affirmed today through a detailed order uploaded on the Court's official website. In its order, the bench led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant also clarified that merely having an appeal pending before the Appellate Tribunal would not entitle an excluded person to vote.
"Therefore, invoke our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India and direct the ECI that, wherever the Appellate Tribunals can decide the appeals by April 21, 2026, or April 27, as the case may be, such appellate orders shall be given effect to by issuing a supplementary revised electoral roll, and all necessary consequences with respect to the right to vote shall follow. However, it goes without saying that the mere pendency of appeals preferred by excluded persons before the Appellate Tribunals shall not entitle them to exercise their right to vote", the Court noted in its order.
The Court has listed the matter for the next hearing on April 24.
On April 13, as had been reported by ANI on X, the Court had verbally remarked that the people whose names have been excluded from the voter list and whose appeals are pending to be adjudicated before the Appellate Tribunals would be allowed to vote if their names are included after final adjudication.
The Court's remarks had come after it was informed by the counsels appearing for the petitioner, the West Bengal government, that the names of 34 lakh people had been excluded from the voter list.
"The Judicial Officers have completed the adjudication by April 9 -- even if they had exceeded by 1-2 days, I have permitted them (to adjudicate further claims). There are 153 constituencies -- there was some spillover of 7-8 constituencies -- those names that were left out would be added to the list for the April 23 elections. Don't worry -- if their names are there, they will be voting," Justice Joymalya Bagchi had said during the hearing on April 13.
The Court had also, in its April 13 hearing, directed the West Bengal government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to continue and strengthen security for judicial officers (JOs) working on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. The Court had said that the concern regarding the safety of JOs deputed in SIR must reach a logical conclusion and should not remain a routine administrative task.
The Court had also said that it will examine issues flagged in the NIA's interim report and noted that it wants to take the matter to its logical conclusion.
"We direct the ECl and State Government to ensure that the security already provided to judicial officers is not withdrawn. Security cover shall not be withdrawn without assessing further threat perception. Deployment of forces in terms of order passed on April 2 will consequently continue till further orders", the Court had observed.
As regards the pendency of claims in the SIR, the Court had relied on inputs from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and had noted that deputed judicial officers had completed verification of about 60,00,000+ claims, with only 1,822 (around 0.03%) objections left pending.
The Court had also noted that a system is already in place, including 19 appellate tribunals monitored by a 3-judge committee and a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued on April 7, 2026, followed by inspection on April 10, 2026.
It has also appreciated the work done by judicial officers and said it has no reason to doubt that the remaining work will be completed soon.
- ANI
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