SIR did not affect electoral results; ECI opposes TMC plea for fresh polls in 31 West Bengal seats

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that 37,05,235 appeals arising out of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal are pending before the Appellate Tribunals. Out of the only 1,26,194 appeals have been decided so far.

The disclosure came in the ECI's reply to an application by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O'Brien.

Pertinently, the ECI opposed O'Brien's plea for fresh polls in 31 West Bengal assembly seats.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana had earlier directed the ECI to specify how many appeals were presently pending before election tribunals.

According to the data furnished by ECI:

- Total appeals filed: 38,31,429

- Filed by voters whose names were excluded or deleted: 22,21,118

- Appeals against inclusion: 16,10,311

- Decided: 1,26,194

- Pending: 37,05,235

Murshidabad and Malda account for the most appeals, with 7,48,216 and 5,31,617 respectively. Murshidabad has decided 595 of its appeals.

O'Brien moved the Court to have the results in 31 assembly constituencies declared void, and fresh polls held once all pending appeals are disposed of.

The BCI has opposed the prayer, stating that election results can be challenged only through election petitions under Article 329(b) of the Constitution, and not on the basis of faults in the electoral roll.

It also said O'Brien's main petition had become infructuous after the Supreme Court upheld the West Bengal SIR exercise on May 27.

The ECI has accused O'Brien of having deliberately conflated all categories of deletions in voter rolls in an attempt to create a misleading narrative. It said the removal of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate entries was never placed before the judicial officers.

Excluding these, the adjudicated deletions in Dinhata, Khargram, Bally and Howrah Uttar were lower than the TMC's losing margins completely demolishing O'Brien's "speculative theory" that the adjudication exercise altered the electoral outcome.

It further highlighted 21 seats won by the TMC where adjudicated deletions exceeded the winning margin.

The ECI also filed a counter affidavit in a petition by Prasenjit Bose which seeks constituency-wise SIR data and changes to the appeals process.

To speed up disposal, the ECI has proposed increasing the number of tribunals to match the number of parliamentary constituencies in the State. It said its software would let judicial officers hold hearings "from anywhere, including from their respective places of residence."

In Bose' matter, the ECI placed constituency-wise data on record.

As per the same, the rolls shrank from 7,66,37,529 electors in the pre-draft roll of October 27, 2025 to 6,44,52,609 in the final roll of February 28, 2026. A total of 60,06,675 electors marked as adjudicated were not part of the final roll.

On Bose's other prayers, the ECI has said they pertain primarily to the functioning, procedure and accessibility of the appellate mechanism. It said these matters fall within the Standard Operating Procedure framed for the tribunals. It also noted that the Supreme Court had given parties liberty to approach the Calcutta High Court with regard to the same.