Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday made submissions in the writ petition filed by her challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal.
This marks the first time a sitting Chief Minister has appeared in person before the Supreme Court to make oral submissions.
Senior Advocate Shyam Divan represented the West Bengal Chief Minister and spoke to the bench, which included Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi. Banerjee also made some brief submissions.
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The Bench assured that "every problem has a solution" and that "no innocent citizens will be left out" while adding that the "genuine persons must remain in the list".
The bench further thanked the Chief Minister since it was through her petition that such issues, including discrepancies due to local dialect, and were raised and brought into spotlight. "We will find out a solution. We will have to find out a solution," assured the Bench.
"Even the ECI will not like to run away from that responsibility. The genuine persons must not be excluded," said the Bench.
'We are clueless'
Responding to Bench, the Election Commission's lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi said, "As far as the Election Commission of India is concerned, so far we are not being served with any pleadings. We are clueless what their grievance is. If it's there.. being served to us, a week's time given... we'll get all instructions and place it with your lordships."
"A week's time will be too late," replied the bench to which the ECI lawyer said, "Let it be on Monday because minutes were clueless what their grievances were."
SIR process only for deletion, not inclusion, says CM
At this point, the Chief Minister intervened and urged the bench to allow her to cite an example and show photographs. "I can show you some photographs if you allow me. All the Bengali leading newspapers have reported... sir, their SIR process is only for deletion, not for inclusion. There is mismatch in not only the title but mismatch and misplan as well," Mamata Banerjee alleged.
For instance, she said that when a woman takes her husband's surname after marriage or moves to her in-lawsâ home, it is seen as a difference. In the same way, people who move for work are also being categorised under discrepancy mapping. She claimed this is causing deletions.
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I am from a common family, says CM
Banerjee claimed that justice was being delayed. "The problem is, always our lawyers fight for the case and we are fighting from the beginning. But when everything is finished, when we are not getting justice, when justice is crying behind the door - then we thought, we are not getting justice anywhere. I have written letters to the Election Commission including all details, but no reply. I am a bonded labour. I am a very less important person, I am from a common family, I am not fighting for my party."
Banerjee said the people of Bengal had welcomed the court's earlier decision to accept documents like Aadhaar cards, domicile certificates and government housing papers. However, she claimed that, despite this, Bengal was being singled out before the elections. "They only targeted Bengal on the eve of election," Mamata submitted in the court.
CM questions urgency of SIR exercise
Questioning the urgency of the exercise, she asked why a process that could have taken two years was squeezed into four months. She said that notices were sent out during the busy harvest and holiday seasons, when many people were away from their registered addresses. This made it harder for them to respond.
Further, she criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the Supreme Court hearing, referring to it as the "WhatsApp Commission". She claimed that the commission was behind mass deletions of voter names and said that Bengal was being unfairly targeted in the current SIR process.
Additionally, she told the Supreme Court that the powers usually held by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs have been effectively sidelined. Now, âmicro-observersâ play a key role in the SIR process. She claimed that about 3,800 of these observers, many from BJP-ruled states, have been deployed and were able to recommend deletions from Election Commission offices.
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Banerjee stated that in the first phase alone, nearly 58 lakh names were marked as âdeclared deadâ. She alleged that domicile certificates and other government-issued documents were not being accepted in many cases. In response to these concerns, the Chief Justice of India noted that the court could consider requiring that every notice be formally authorized by the Booth Level Officer (BLO). This would reinforce accountability in the process.
ECI speaks
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the ECI, explained that the ECI had to appoint micro observers because the state government did not provide enough Group B officers for SIR work, despite several reminders from the ECI. He stated that micro observers are correctly appointed under the RP Act and that their appointment was necessary due to the lack of cooperation from the state.
Senior Advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, also representing the ECI, supported Dwivedi's claim about the state's non-cooperation.
The ECI stated, "We cried foul. We wrote many letters asking for Class II officers. We did not get them. Only 80 clerks were provided. Therefore, we were compelled to appoint micro observers. The state is not cooperating. We had no other option."
The ECI alleged that the state was sending lower-level staff, including Class 3 officers and Anganwadi workers, who did not have the authority to verify documents, making it necessary for them to appoint micro-observers.
SC issues notice, next hearing on Monday
At the end of the hearing, the bench issued a notice to the Election Commission of India regarding Banerjee's plea and requested their response by next Monday. Concerning the issue of micro observers, the bench indicated that if the state government could provide a list of Group B officers available for SIR duties, then micro observers could be relieved.
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If required, the timeline for the Special Intensive Revision exercise in West Bengal may be extended, Chief Justice Surya Kant observed. He said, âProvide me with a list of state officials who will work with the Election Commission. There may be situations where micro-observers are not required in a state.â
The CJI also asked Dwivedi, the counsel of the ECI, to not issue hearing notices over name-spelling mismatches. "Probably once officers are made available, micro observers won't be required. (to ECI) Tell your officers also to be sensitive and not issue notice to..." CJI said.
'Atmosphere of hostility', says Solicitor General of India
Solicitor General (SG) of India Tushar Mehta said, "We have filed an affidavit on behalf of the Election Commission." The Solicitor General of India mentioned that the accusations against the ECI were being made with excessive hostility.
According to Live Law, the SG asked the bench to include a PIL from Sanatan Sangsad, which requests protection for ECI officials. The bench agreed to hear that PIL at the next hearing along with Banerjee's plea.
'Urgent action needed'
As the hearing drew to a close, CM Banerjee urged the Court, "Please protect the people's rights. We are grateful."
Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, representing Mamata Banerjee, stated that urgent action is needed to stop the removal of voters from the list. He asked that the upcoming Assembly elections be held using the 2025 voters list rather than the new list set to be published after the SIR. He noted that only 11 days remain for the final list's publication and that over 1.36 crore individuals on the 'Logical Discrepancy (LD)' list have not yet had their cases heard.
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It is impossible to finish these hearings before the final list is due. Divan also pointed out that the ECI was not showing the reasons for including names on the 'logical discrepancy' list.
He highlighted that more than 50 per cent of the individuals on this list have been flagged for minor spelling errors. These minor errors occur when Bengali names are written in English and many surnames can have different spellings. He argued that individuals should not be placed on the LD list simply due to minor spelling mistakes.
