Supreme Court directs polling staff to tribunals over voter roll deletion concerns

PTI, Apr 25, 2026, Kolkata: The Supreme Court of India on Friday declined to examine pleas by election duty personnel in West Bengal who claim their names were removed from voter lists during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), effectively preventing them from voting in the very polls they are administering.

A Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, said the petitioners should pursue remedies before appellate tribunals constituted to deal with disputes arising out of the revision exercise.

Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate M. R. Shamshad told the court that dozens of affected individuals are currently deployed on poll duty.

He argued that the situation was inherently contradictory: officials tasked with facilitating the democratic process were themselves excluded from it. Despite being assigned duties with valid EPIC references, their names no longer figure in the rolls, he submitted.

The petitioners alleged that the deletions were carried out without prior notice, raising concerns over procedural fairness. They urged the court to step in, citing urgency due to the ongoing election schedule.

However, the Bench maintained that the statutory appellate route must be exhausted first. When informed that appeals had already been filed earlier in April but were yet to be heard, the court allowed the petitioners to continue before the tribunals and disposed of the matter without issuing further directions.

The issue unfolds against the backdrop of the state’s multi-phase Assembly elections. The first round of polling has concluded, while the next phase is slated for April 29.

In an earlier order, the top court had clarified that only those whose appeals are decided in their favour within the relevant cut-off dates would be eligible to vote in the corresponding phases. It had also stated that merely filing an appeal does not restore voting rights.

With lakhs of appeals reportedly pending, the pace and outcome of tribunal proceedings are likely to determine how many affected voters can participate in the remaining phase of the election.