37 lakh Bengal SIR appeals could take 12 years to clear, EC seeks more tribunals
Clearing the more than 37 lakh appeals pending from West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls could take nearly 12 years at the current pace, prompting the Election Commission to ask the Supreme Court to increase the number of tribunals hearing the cases.
In an affidavit, the poll panel told the Supreme Court that the tribunals have disposed of 1,26,194 appeals since they started hearing cases in mid-April. This works out to roughly 25,238 cases being cleared every month, with the calculation taking into account all seven days of the week as working days, according to a Times of India report.
As of September 16, when the affidavit was filed, 37,05,235 appeals remained pending. If the tribunals continue working seven days a week at the current pace, it would take 146 months — more than 12 years — to dispose of the entire backlog.
The Commission has therefore asked the Supreme Court to create more tribunals to speed up the process. It has proposed setting up one tribunal for each of West Bengal's 42 parliamentary constituencies.
The EC's data shows that 38.31 lakh appeals have been filed against orders relating to the SIR of electoral rolls. Of these, 22.21 lakh were filed by people whose names were deleted and who are seeking their inclusion in the electoral rolls, while 16.10 lakh appeals challenge the inclusion of names.
Of the 1,26,194 appeals decided by the tribunals, 1,13,943 resulted in the applicants being added back to the electoral rolls, according to the EC. This means more than 90 per cent of the appeals decided so far have resulted in names being restored.
The Commission's affidavit also disputes claims that the SIR-related deletions affected the outcome of the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The EC said claims that deletions exceeded victory margins in several constituencies ignored entries classified as "absent, shifted, dead and duplicate".
The poll panel described the comparison between the number of deletions and election victory margins as a "flawed, speculative yardstick."
It also cited constituencies won by TMC candidates where the number of deletions was greater than the winning margin.
The affidavit argues that using deletion numbers as a measure to claim that SIR affected election results would therefore be an unreliable approach.19 TRIBUNALS CURRENTLY HEARING APPEALS
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the Election Commission to provide data on the pendency and disposal of appeals and explain what steps were being taken to streamline their disposal.
The court had also said the appeals needed to be adjudicated in a time-bound manner and asked how many additional tribunals would be required.
Later, the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, acting on the Supreme Court's direction, set up 19 tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and judges to decide the appeals.
Around 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand had also been deployed to deal with the claims and objections arising from the SIR exercise.- Ends(With PTI inputs)Published By: Karishma Saurabh KalitaPublished On: Sep 21, 2026 08:47 IST
