'250 Officers, 50 Lakh Claims': Judiciary Rushes To Help Poll Body In Bengal

In what is effectively the judiciary stepping in to complete the Election Commission's work during the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists in poll-bound West Bengal, the Supreme Court has asked the Calcutta High Court to appoint civil judges to aid the verification process.

The top court has invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution after the Chief Justice Sujoy Paul of the Calcutta High Court flagged the acute shortage of judicial officers to complete the verification process.

"We are in receipt of a letter dated Feb 22 from the Chief Justice of Calcutta HC highlighting the enormity of the exercise in verification of approximately 80 lakh logical discrepancy/ unmapped category... The communication confirms that 250 judicial officers of the rank of DJ and ADJ have been assigned the task of verifying approximately 50 lakhs claims," the Supreme Court's order has said.

"It is estimated that even in the event that each officer disposed of 250 cases per day, the entire process will take 80 days. Taking note of this fact, and the time constraints, we are of the view that further clarifications are needed to increase the catchment area of judicial officers," it added.

The poll body has issued notices to three categories of voters -- mapped, unmapped and those with logical discrepancies. The mapped category includes those whose records have been linked to voter data, but require further verification. The 'unmapped' category includes voters whose records were not found linked to electoral data. And the 'logical discrepancy' category has people who have received notices for inconsistencies such as a mismatch in parents' names, different spellings, and implausible age gaps between children and parents.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has said the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court can draw officers in the rank of civil judges (civil and junior division having experience not less than 3 years ) to create a pool to complete the pending process. He has noted that judicial officers from neigbouring states, Jharkhand and Odisha, can help because they were earlier parts of Bengal.

"Travel, boarding, lodging of such officers shall be borne by the Election Commission of India," the top court has said, adding that Chief justices of the high courts of Odisha and Jharkhand should "sympathetically and urgently consider" any request by the Calcutta High Court.

The Chief Justice of India also clarified that in keeping with its September 2025 ruling, Aadhaar will be allowed as proof of identity and admit cards of Madhyamik (secondary) exams shall also be accepted.

The last date of publishing the final electoral roll is February 28. "If the verification excercise in relation to LD / unmapped category remains unfinished till Feb 28, ECI may publish final list followed by supplementary list and shall supplementary list shall be published on continuous basis as soon as pending work is complete," the order said.

The ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal responded by saying that the Election Commission has "effectively lost control over the conduct of the SIR process in Bengal". "The terms are now being clearly dictated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, as consistently urged by Smt @MamataOfficial... The conspiracy to selectively target, intimidate, and harass voters in Bengal has once again run into a firm judicial barrier. Institutions must function within the bounds of law, not at the behest of partisan interests," it said on X.