Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal: Mr Dwivedi had made a solemn statement that he will not bother about it.
Justice Bagchi: Mr Dwivedi, in Bengal you will called "Mr Dibedi". Bengali language does not have a "va".
CJI: My name will be pronounced correctly.
Mamata Banerjee: No it will not Sir.
Sr Adv Gopal S: 2002 electoral roll was in Bengali.
CJI Kant: What is the solution?
Shyam Divan: Name discrepancy is cramping the available time.
Look at the inconvenience
CJI Kant: Mr Dwivedi, some discrepancy is due to how you speak in local dialect... such things happen pan India.
Dwivedi: I dont have instructions today.
Shyam Divan: We have given you examples of actual electors. Please see appendix one... Mr Chirag Tibrewal. His discrepancy was father's name mismatch since father has 'Kumar' as the middle name. I was called with a notice. Then comes Azimuddin Khan... father name shows 'Alauddin Khan' in Bengali... so from Bengali to English... you can loose this.
CJI Kant: This a clause 2...
Shyam Divan: It is again a name mismatch.
CJI Kant: Suppose one person writes 'Dutta' and some may spell it as 'Datta'...
Shyam Divan: Yes yes that is one part.
Justice Bagchi: Same with 'Bandhopadhyay'.
Shyam Divan: We have given 'Dutta', 'Ganguly', 'Roy' and 'Ray'.
CJI Kant: To withdraw notices will be impractical since it has been issued already
Shyam Divan: This is a suggestion... in the LD list... majority... almost 70 lakhs are of minor name mismatches.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi: Yes, notices are being sent.
CJI Kant: You say due to mismatch of names... etc... these are well explained reasons.
Shyam Divan: Please see the note. We have sought ECI to direct withdraw all notices which pertain to only name mismatch .
Shyam Divan: ECI has to upload the reasons for citing each of the names in the logical discrepancy list. After directions of this court, name, age, gender is there and in reasons is only D and M. No reasons are given.
Justice Bagchi: We were informed that it is on the website.
Shyam Divan: Some short reasons must be given. People should know why they are not in the list.
CJI Kant: Yes to the extent the person should know is fine... only thing is the mode in which they are informed. We were told that list is not only communication but individual notices are being given.
Shyam Divan: Please see this, number of micro observers deputed is 8,300. They are not contemplated under the constitution at all. Number of approved documents rejected... domicile certificates, Aadhaar, OBC certificate.. nothing of these are being accepted. People are in 4 to 5 hours queues.
CJI Kant: I had the advantage of my two brothers from West Bengal. They told me how pass certificates are issued and that is why we included it
Shyam Divan: Please see the brief note by the petitioner... see the number of days left to complete the hearing only 4 days. Unmapped voters are 32 lakhs. 1.36 crores in logical discrepancy list. Hearings pending 63 lakhs.
Senior Advocate Divan appearing in item 36.
Shyam Divan: This court had directed that logical discrepancy list has to be displayed.
(Reads the earlier court order)
CJI Surya Kant: Item 37 is by Madam Mamata Banerjee?
Senior Advocate Shyam Divan: Yes.
Hearing begins.
Delhi police tighten security in and around court premises.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrives.
She is seated in courtroom 1 for the hearing.
The Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in various States.
Notably, the hearing in petitions related to the SIR in West Bengal may see Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee make arguments. She has moved an interlocutory application seeking permission to appear and argue in person and is present at the Supreme Court, along with her lawyers.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi is hearing the matter.
Banerjee had earlier filed an Article 32 petition challenging the SIR process. Among other prayers, she has sought a direction that the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections be conducted on the basis of the existing electoral rolls instead of rolls that will be revised after SIR. She has also sought urgent directions to halt the deletion of voters from the electoral rolls.
Track this page for live updates from the hearing today.