Supreme Court notice to poll body on SIR in Bengal, Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Election Commission on pleas challenging the Special Intensive Revision in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but asked the petitioners why they were so apprehensive about the exercise.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said a constitutional authority was undertaking the voter clean-up exercise and there could be a functional deficiency that could be rectified.

"Why are you people so apprehensive? They (Election Commission) have to answer all such issues and they will. Some deficiencies will have to be rectified and so it's a case of rectification of deficiencies," the bench said.

"Look at the monsoons. It's not a uniform thing. Heavy rain happens during the time of this exercise in the state. The flood relief too will have to be managed by the BLOs. Tamil Nadu is an agricultural state so most people will not be available," he said.

"Christmas vacations will be declared, and most families will not be available to participate. There will be Pongal, which is celebrated in the state," he added.

To this, the Supreme Court said, some deficiencies as far as smooth conduct of SIR was concerned should be rectified. "It's a case of rectification of deficiencies. It's not a case in your favour." the bench said.

Sibal said that till now, only 4,000 forms under the form distribution phase had been digitalised out of 3.94 crore forms.

"If this is taken into account, lakhs of forms will not be able to digitalised. Period of filing of claims, objections and notice will overlap. Why this great hurry we don't understand. We all want the system to work. We are only giving suggestions," he said.

After the arguments, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission and granted two weeks to it for responding to the issues. The Court will hear the matter again on November 26.

The Supreme Court also sought a response from the poll body on an application filed challenging the just-concluded SIR in Bihar, where Assembly polls are underway.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan said, "The application seeks to direct the poll body not to determine citizenship since they don't have the authority."

He said the poll body was not releasing the 2003 voter list to the voters in Bihar. "If my family members' names are there, I should be able to see it in the list," he said.

To this, the Supreme Court said, "If you lock your house, it can still be broken, but would that be a justification for not locking the house? The Election Commission is entitled to have layers of privacy on the data."

 The poll body will publish the draft electoral rolls on December 9 and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7, 2026.