Kolkata: Concerns over the alleged large-scale deletion of lawyers’ names — including those of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state cabinet minister Chandrima Bhattacharya — from the draft voter list for the West Bengal Bar Council elections were raised before the Calcutta High Court on Friday.
The issue was mentioned before a single bench of Justice Krishna Rao through a writ petition filed by Sumitra Bhattacharya (Neogi), an enrolled advocate of the Bar Council of West Bengal and a practising lawyer at the High Court. Alleging that thousands of eligible advocates had been omitted from the draft list, the petitioner sought publication of a corrected voter roll ahead of the elections scheduled for February 19, 20 and 21.
During submissions, the petitioner’s counsel claimed that nearly 18,000 names were missing from the draft list, including those of the Chief Minister and the state minister. It was contended that such omissions rendered the voter list unreliable and amounted to a violation of the principles of natural justice.
Justice Rao directed that the matter be listed as an urgent motion on January 7. However, the court questioned the maintainability of the writ petition, an issue which the petitioner’s counsel said would be addressed at the next hearing.
The petition further alleged that despite the deletion of names from the voter list, the Bar Council had collected substantial deposit amounts from advocates willing to contest the elections. A stay on the election process was also sought. The last Bar Council election in West Bengal was held in 2018.
The Bar Council has over 80,000 members across the state, including around 14,000 advocates practising at the Calcutta High Court. According to the High Court Bar Association secretary, more than 7,000 names were removed from the draft voter list.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India had earlier fixed March 15 as the deadline for completion of the West Bengal Bar Council elections under a nationwide schedule finalised in November 2025.