Why is the role of SIR tribunals in West Bengal under scrutiny | Explained

The Story So Far: The protests raging across the country demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has brought the focus on the experiment of revision of voter lists in West Bengal, which saw the deletion of nearly 91 lakh voters from the electoral rolls. Four months after the West Bengal assembly elections, the fate of about 37 lakh electors still hangs before the SIR tribunals.In an affidavit, the Election Commission informed the Supreme Court on September 18 that the number of appeals pending before the 19 SIR tribunals is 37,18,452. The affidavit states that 38,20,683 appeals were submitted regarding both inclusions and exclusions of voters from the West Bengal electoral roll during the SIR exercise. The EC said only 1,02,231 appeals have been disposed of so far.A break up of the backlog of nearly 37 lakh cases includes over 22 lakh voters, who have filed appeals challenging their deletion after names were struck off electoral rolls. Names of 27 lakh electors were removed from electoral rolls after being put into a category of ‘logical discrepancies’. There are another 16 lakh appeals against inclusion of voters in West Bengal not only without the knowledge of the electors but also two Election Commissioners.How are SIR tribunals functioning ?The SIR tribunals are functioning at a tardy pace and six months after these were set up in March 2026, weeks before the assembly polls in the State. Out of 38 lakh applications, only one lakh has been disposed of, which brings the disposal rate to about 3% in six months. These 19 tribunals were set up on March 20 by a notification by EC, comprising retired judges of the Calcutta High Court.Former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, T. S. Sivagnanam resigned from the SIR tribunal in the first week of May citing personal reasons. Ranajit Kumar Bag, another retired judge, stepped down from the tribunal on personal reasons. Last month, Justice (Retd.) Indrajit Chatterjee, who is presiding over the appellate tribunal in Murshidabad district, wrote to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge, expressing his wish to discontinue with effect from November 2, 2026. He cited the long commute from his residence in Salt Lake to Joka, where the tribunals are functioning as a reason for his communication to the Chief Justice of the High Court.The judges presiding over the tribunals are upset over the slow pace at which the pending applications are being disposed of. According to minutes of a meeting of tribunal judges dated August 11, the majority of the judges complained about the ECINET portal, saying it failed to work as intended.The judges pointed out that there was no proper mechanism on the portal to serve notices to parties, no way additional documents can be ascertained from applicants and once an appeal is disposed of either by inclusion or deletion of the voter, it cannot be restored in the portal. The document also expressed concerns over the location of the tribunal at Joka and suggested that change of venue can be convenient to all judges. While the judges presiding over tribunals have so far not gone on record and described their resignations as decisions for personal reasons, there is a growing perception that the tribunals and electors whose fate hangs in balance has been left to fend for its own.Inclusion of new and left out voters in WBThe office of the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal issued a notice on October 6 stating that any eligible voter who has been deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) can apply for their name to be restored through Form 6.“For left out eligible voter, the list of Absentee, Shifted, Dead, Deleted (ASDD) voters of SIR 2026 is available at the link ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/asd sir and also at the respective links on the websites of the District Electoral Officers. Any person in this list, may submit Form 6 online or through BLO for inclusion of his/her name in the Electoral Roll,” the notice stated.On October 2, the ECI had directed the CEOs where the SIR has been completed or is underway to compare the pre-SIR voter lists with the current ones and enroll within a period of one month those who have been left out but are eligible, through Form 6.While the ASDD voters, whose name was deleted in the first phase of SIR in State are eligible to be included in the fresh drive in West Bengal, there is no clarity whether the 37 lakh electors whose right to vote is pending before judicial tribunal will be included in the drive or not. The notification from the CEO office remains silent on electors whose applications are pending The State’s Chief Electoral Officer has sought clarification from the Election Commission on whether voters whose cases are stuck in the tribunals could in any manner be considered for the fresh re-enrolment drive of electors left out during the SIR process.Lakhs to lose right to vote in the civic pollsWith the tribunals working at snail’s pace and no steps being taken by the ECI to either decentralise the process or increase the number of tribunals, lakhs of voters in the State are likely to miss voting for the second time in the upcoming civic polls. After the BJP came to power in West Bengal, the majority of civic bodies administered by Trinamool Congress have become defunct because of the resignation of elected civic representatives. In the elections to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation — two largest civic bodies of the State — likely to be held after the Durga Puja in the last week of November, lakhs of voters whose names are pending before tribunals are likely to miss their right to vote. About 85,000 appeals of deleted voters are pending before the tribunal only in the KMC area. Recently, 19,000 voters whose names were struck off electoral rolls were unable to vote for the second time in Nandigram and Rejinagar by-elections held on October 6.