Plea claims people not getting rations after West Bengal SIR exclusion: Supreme Court says approach Calcutta HC

The Supreme Court on Monday asked a petitioner to approach the Calcutta High Court with his plea challenging the omission of persons from the ration distribution system in West Bengal on the basis of their exclusion from the electoral rolls after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

The plea was mentioned before a vacation bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi.

The petition, filed by agricultural workers union Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, challenges an order dated June 4 by the West Bengal Food and Supplies Department and a notification dated May 19 by the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare.

Both link beneficiary status under the public distribution system (PDS) and the Annapurna Yojana to classifications generated during the SIR exercise, including categories such as dead, shifted, deleted and absentee electors.

The petition states that between 35 lakh and 60 lakh ration cards could become inactive if the State applies the linkage mechanically.

Advocate Prasanna Kumar, appearing for the petitioner, told the Bench that the Court had already upheld the SIR process in Association for Democratic Reforms v Election Commission of India and that other states were following a similar pattern of linking SIR outcomes to welfare entitlements. He said that the matter required urgent listing.

The petition argues that the linkage violates Articles 14 and 21, given that SIR exclusion does not determine economic vulnerability or citizenship status, a point the Court itself clarified in the ADR judgment.

It also argues that the action amounts to an impermissible use of data collected for one statutory purpose (electoral revision) for an entirely different one (welfare eligibility).

Justice Nagarathna asked why the plea had been filed under Article 32, noting that it raised a separate cause of action altogether, namely, whether ration cards ought to be discontinued or whether such persons should continue to remain part of the beneficiaries under the PDS. She said that this question ought to go before the Calcutta High Court.