West Bengal SIR: Leaves cancelled for judges; urgent cases to be shifted to other courts

Following the Supreme Court's recent order for deployment of judicial officers to ensure completion of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court has decided to cancel the leaves of all judicial officers.

The High Court has also refrained the judicial officers from taking any leaves between February 21 and March 9, except in case of medical emergency. In the meantime, the training programs scheduled at the West Bengal Judicial Academy have also been deferred.

"All the Judicial Officers of the aforesaid rank, if are on leave (pre-approved or otherwise) are directed to join their respective Courts and Offices by 23.02.2026 (F/N), positively. All leaves (except under medical emergency) till 09.03.2026, even if approved by the Hon'ble Court, hereby stand cancelled," the High Court said in a notice.

Citing a trust deficit between the Mamata Banerjee-led government and the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Supreme Court last week urged the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice "to spare some serving judicial officers, along with some former judicial officers of impeccable integrity in the rank of District Judges/Additional District Judges" in each district to revisit and dispose of the pending claims under the category of “logical discrepancy/unmapped category”.

Considering the impact it will have on the hearing of other cases, the Court also said that some interim arrangement for shifting of matters of interim relief or of urgent nature to alternative courts be evolved for a week or ten days.

The High Court Chief Justice has now constituted a committee comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, Justice Arijit Banerjee, Registrar General Nabanita Ray, Registrar (Judicial Service) Raju Mukherjee and Joint-Registrar-cum-Secretary to the Chief Justice, Ajay Kumar Das to look after the interim arrangement for shifting of matters of interim relief or urgent nature to alternative courts.

A committee comprising the district judge, the district magistrate and the superintendent of police has also been constituted in each district for smooth compliance of Supreme Court directions.

Supreme Court has said that every direction or order that may be passed by the judicial officers or former judicial officers shall be deemed to be a direction issued by the Court, and the State authorities shall be obligated to comply with the same immediately to ensure the timely completion of the SIR process.