Overview
- Following Monday's hearing, the bench refused interim voting for people whose names were deleted in the Special Intensive Revision and told them to pursue pending appeals before newly set appellate tribunals.
- The Election Commission froze West Bengal’s electoral rolls on April 9, and 19 tribunals now face roughly 30–34 lakh appeals, leaving each with more than one lakh cases to decide before the April 23 and 29 polls.
- The Court said West Bengal’s revision deviated from past practice by introducing a unique “logical discrepancy” category and by seeking documents even from voters mapped to the 2002 roll, and it pressed for a robust appeals system.
- Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted that officers have been reviewing about 1,000 documents a day and will make mistakes, and he warned that large exclusions in close races could call outcomes into question.
- As a narrow remedy, the Court said it is weighing supplementary voter lists for appellants cleared before polling, as more than 61 lakh deletions reported since February continue to drive disputes and claims of targeted removals.