The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday (April 1, 2026) said the rights of West Bengal voters purged from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and unable to make it to any of the supplementary lists ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled in April, cannot be “washed away forever”.

A three judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant made the observation in the context of 19 tribunals constituted by the Election Commission of India to hear appeals of persons excluded from the electoral roll. The appellate tribunals, notified by the EC on April 20, are presided over by former Chief Justices and judges of High Courts.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the adjudication and appellate processes of the SIR exercise must be taken to its logical conclusion, and anything less would lead to an “extremely oppressive” situation.

The Bench directed that the EC should provide the tribunals complete access to the reasons and remarks recorded by adjudicating officers on why “logical discrepancy was justified and deletion of a person from the electoral roll was warranted”. Chief Justice Kant said the appellate hearings before seasoned judges in the tribunals would ensure that justice would be done to those excluded incorrectly.

The hearing on Wednesday commenced with the Bench reading out a communication from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court that judicial officers, deployed as Election Registration Officers and Assistant Election Registration Officers (EROs/AEROs) for the SIR exercise, had already disposed of nearly 47 lakh of a total 60 lakh claims under adjudication.

The Bench conveyed the High Court Chief Justice’s assurance that the remaining claims would be disposed of by April 7.

The final date for filing nominations for the first phase of elections, which will see 152 of the total 294 Assembly constituencies go to poll, was April 6. The polling date for the first phase is April 23. The second phase of polling covers 142 constituencies. The last date for nomination for this phase is April 9. Polling is scheduled on April 29.

Though the final voter list for West Bengal was published on February 28, 2026, the Supreme Court, to protect voting rights, had allowed the electoral roll to be updated through the publication of supplementary lists as and when more voters under adjudication were cleared for inclusion. The fourth such supplementary list was published a couple of days ago.

“If somebody has a right [to vote] we cannot thwart, if somebody does not have a right to vote, we can stop the person. It is as simple as that,” senior advocate Dama Seshadhiri Naidu, for the EC, submitted.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, for the State government, submitted that out of the approximately over 40 lakh claims disposed of, there was a “very high exclusion rate” of 45%. “And these are all mapped individuals,” Mr. Divan said.

In the previous hearing, Mr. Divan had raised questions about whether all the pending claims could be adjudicated ahead of the freezing of the State electoral roll on the last date for filing nomination forms.

“We only want eligible voters to be included in the voter list,” Mr. Naidu said.

“That was why a former High Court judge’s name was excluded…” senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan retorted. The court listed the case on April 6, the last day for nominations for the first phase of polls, to consider the status of the adjudication of the claims and objections raised following the SIR process in West Bengal.