The Supreme Court on Friday (February 20, 2026) took an “extraordinary” decision to involve the judiciary in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, saying the persistent “trust deficit” between the Mamata Banerjee government and the Election Commission (EC) has led to a “stalemate”, with time running out.
Trinamool hails Supreme Court order to engage judicial officers for SIR in Bengal
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant requested the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to deploy a force of serving and retired judicial officers of West Bengal to take over the quasi-judicial task of Electoral Registration Officers/Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (EROs/AEROs). They would hear lakhs of voters who found themselves purged from the West Bengal draft roll, and had received hearing notices after the EC found them “unmapped” or detected “logical discrepancies” in their personal details.These discrepancies included variations in the spelling of names, age-gaps between inter-generational family members, and the number of children.
EC using ‘very restrictive’ software tools unable to fathom ‘natural differences’, says Supreme Court
