The Supreme Court on Monday (April 13, 2026) told the Election Commission that the right to be on the electoral roll and to vote in one’s own country is not only constitutional but sentimental, while referring to lakhs of voters excluded for “logical discrepancies” and lining up for appeal hearings in West Bengal, hardly 10 days ahead of the Assembly elections, following an “inquisitorial” Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The court said 34 lakh appeals by voters purged from the West Bengal electoral roll have already been filed for hearing before 19 Appellate Tribunals. The court said there were over a lakh appeals pending before each of these tribunals.
The Commission had frozen the electoral roll on April 9. Bengal votes on April 23 and April 29.
After months of interventions to make the SIR more inclusive, the court made cutting remarks about the impact of an exercise the poll body said was necessary to “purify the electoral roll”.
“The right to remain on the electoral roll, the right to vote in the country you are born in is something which is not only constitutional but sentimental. It is the biggest expression of nationality and patriotism that you are in a participatory process to elect a democratic government,” Justice Joymalya Bagchi said while addressing the Commission.
