The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals whose names are restored to the electoral rolls by appellate tribunals at least two days before polling will be eligible to vote in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections, providing limited relief to those excluded during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
Invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to implement favourable appellate orders by issuing supplementary electoral rolls ahead of polling dates.
With polling scheduled in two phases on 23 April and 29 April, the court held that individuals declared eligible by appellate tribunals must be allowed to exercise their franchise in the ongoing election process.
“We, therefore, invoke our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India and direct the ECI that, wherever the appellate tribunals are able to decide the appeals by 21.04.2026 or 27.04.2026, 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,” the bench ordered.
The order, issued on Thursday after the previous hearing on 13 April, represents a calibrated shift from the court’s earlier position that those with pending appeals could not be allowed to vote, as doing so could compromise the integrity of the electoral process.
Under the directions, appellate tribunals must dispose of appeals by 21 April for the first phase of polling on 23 April, and by 27 April for the second phase on 29 April. Individuals whose appeals are allowed within this window will have their names restored through supplementary rolls, enabling them to cast their vote despite the formal freeze of electoral lists.
The development is significant because electoral rolls for the two phases had already been frozen on 6 April and 9 April respectively, leaving many claimants without recourse in time for inclusion. The court’s intervention creates a limited opportunity for eligible voters to regain their franchise even after the revision process had technically closed.
At the same time, the bench made it clear that merely filing an appeal does not automatically confer voting rights. “The mere pendency of appeals… shall not entitle them to exercise their right to vote,” the court observed, warning that permitting undecided claims could create an “anomalous situation” and effectively reopen the entire revision exercise.
The order comes in response to a batch of petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision in West Bengal, an unusually large exercise in which judicial officers adjudicated more than six million claims and objections within a compressed timeline. The court noted that verification carried out by what it described as a neutral body of judicial officers displaced the earlier presumption of correctness attached to entries in the electoral rolls.
To address concerns of wrongful exclusion, the court had earlier put in place a two-tier appellate mechanism. Individuals removed from the rolls were permitted to first approach judicial officers and thereafter appellate tribunals headed by former Chief Justices and senior High Court judges.
According to the court record, more than 34 lakh appeals have already been filed before these tribunals, including challenges by excluded voters as well as objections to the inclusion of others.
The bench also took note of the institutional framework established for the appeals process, including a standard operating procedure developed by a committee of former judges and the creation of a dedicated digital portal to facilitate filings and adjudication.
Emphasising the need to balance electoral integrity with the right to vote, the court said its directions were intended to ensure that final determinations on voter eligibility are not rendered meaningless due to procedural timelines. At the same time, it cautioned that allowing undecided claims to translate into voting rights could undermine the entire verification exercise and lead to administrative uncertainty, including competing claims for inclusion or exclusion.
The court also recorded its appreciation for what it described as the “herculean task” undertaken by judicial officers from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha in completing the large-scale verification exercise within a short period.
The matter is scheduled to be heard again on 24 April, even as the election process proceeds under the framework laid down by the court.
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