Apex Court allows Odisha, J’khand judges for Bengal SIR verification

Kolkata: In a significant development that the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) termed a “victory of the people of Bengal”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to permit the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to draw additional judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha, if required, to hasten the extensive verification exercise under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal.

A Bench comprising the Chief Justice of India, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi was hearing a batch of writ petitions concerning the verification of approximately 50 lakh cases placed under the “logical discrepancy/unmapped category”.

The court took note of a self-speaking letter dated February 22, 2026, from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, highlighting the enormity of the task.

At present, 250 District Judges and Additional District Judges have been assigned to verify the claims and objections. The court recorded that even if each judicial officer disposes of around 250 cases per day, the exercise would take about 80 days to complete.

To augment capacity, the Apex Court allowed the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to draw upon Civil Judges (Senior Division) and Civil Judges (Junior Division) with at least three years’ experience. If further manpower is required, he may approach the Chief Justices of the High Court of Jharkhand and Orissa High Court to provide serving or former judicial officers of similar rank to assist in the verification process in West Bengal.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will bear the travel, boarding, honorarium and incidental expenses of such officers. Clarifying the scope of verification, the Bench directed that documents to be considered would include those specified in the ECI notifications commencing the SIR, Aadhaar cards as permitted by earlier orders of the court subject to verification, and Madhyamik (Class 10) admit cards and pass certificates as allowed in a subsequent order. Only documents submitted or electronically updated on or before the February 14, 2026 cut-off date will be accepted. The entire responsibility of satisfying the presiding judicial officers rests with the ERO/AERO.

While the final electoral roll is to be published on February 28, 2026, the court permitted the ECI to publish the final list, followed by supplementary lists if the verification exercise remains incomplete. Invoking Article 142, the court declared that voters included in such supplementary lists shall be deemed to have been part of the final roll published on February 28. The matter will next be heard on March 10, 2026.

The ECI has suffered a series of setbacks in what has been dubbed by the TMC as an “unplanned SIR exercise”. The election body had to extend the deadline for completing the process more than once. It has drawn flak from several quarters for allegedly executing the SIR process in haste, which led to several Booth level Officers (BLOs) committing suicide due to “extreme pressure”.