Row erupts between Bengal CEO civil service officers over ‘under adjudication’ voter roll entries

PTI, March 03, 2026, Kolkata :  A dispute broke out between West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal and a state civil service officers’ organisation over the nearly 60.06 lakh entries marked as “under adjudication” in the post-SIR electoral rolls published on February 28.

These 60.06 lakh names have been kept “under adjudication”, largely due to what officials termed “logical discrepancies” in enumeration forms. These electors remain on the rolls pending decisions by judicial officers.

The controversy began on Monday after Agarwal indicated in a post on X that some names remained undecided at the level of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs (AEROs), leading to their referral for adjudication. The EROs and AEROs are state civil service officers.

“It will be pertinent to mention that certain names have been marked as ‘Under Adjudication’ since the concerned EROs/AEROs did not decide on them after hearing. As a result, those names being pending were sent for adjudication by Judicial Officers as per the order of the Hon’ble Apex Court,” Agarwal said in the post.

The West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers' Association rejected the allegation that EROs and AEROs were responsible for the large number of names marked under that category.

In a statement, the association said the EROs and AEROs had carried out their duties diligently throughout the revision exercise by holding hearings, uploading documents and passing reasoned orders.

The group maintained that EROs and AEROs had carried out their duties diligently throughout the revision exercise by holding hearings, uploading documents and passing reasoned orders.

The statement claimed that Micro Observers and Roll Observers appointed by the Election Commission of India returned several cases that had already been disposed of by EROs and AEROs without offering any remarks.

“This has led to a large number of names being marked as ‘under adjudication',” the Association said.

Terming attempts to shift the blame onto officers involved in the electoral process as “demeaning”, the association said such actions were adversely affecting their morale.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)