New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday flagged key concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, while pointing out that voters have a continuing right to remain on voter lists and that the process must not be distorted by the pressure of conducting elections.
The petitioners have sought extension of the cut-off date for freezing of electoral rolls, arguing that they should be allowed to vote in the upcoming Assembly elections if their appeals succeed. The rolls, as per the Election Commission of India (ECI), have been frozen as on April 9.
“Voters have a continuing right to remain on election rolls. Right to remain a voter in the country in which you were born is not only a constitutional right, but also an emotional one. We need to protect it. We cannot get blinded by dust and fury of impending elections,” the Supreme Court bench noted.
According to data cited by Yadav, the Union health ministry estimated West Bengal’s adult population at 7.67 crore in December 2025. The revised electoral roll recorded 7.66 crore voters — a near perfect match. In no other state was there such close correspondence between the ministry’s estimate and the electoral roll prepared by the state bureaucracy, Yadav said, arguing that the list appeared consistent with demographic projections. However, he said the BJP and the ECI alleged that the rolls were inflated by the inclusion of deceased persons and alleged infiltrators.
Allegations that the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress had inflated the voter list were not borne out by the data, Yadav argued. Nearly 49 per cent of fresh voter registration applications in July–August 2025 were rejected by the state machinery — a figure he said reflected scrutiny rather than manipulation.“If 90 per cent or 99 per cent of applications had been accepted, that might have indicated irregularities. A rejection rate of nearly half suggests due diligence,” he said.
Another claim was that the proportion of ‘unmapped voters’ — those unable to establish legacy links with earlier voters — was unusually low in West Bengal. Yadav argued that comparative data did not support this claim. The share of unmapped voters stood at 3.5 per cent in Chhattisgarh and 1.6 per cent each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, all BJP-ruled states, compared to 4.5 per cent in West Bengal after the SIR exercise.
The SIR process led to the deletion of 7.7 per cent of voters (58 lakh) from the draft roll in West Bengal — a figure comparable to 7.6 per cent in Rajasthan and 7.3 per cent in Madhya Pradesh. However, the number of final deletions in those states was significantly lower. In Madhya Pradesh, only around one lakh voters were ultimately removed. In Gujarat, where 1.1 crore voters were flagged during SIR, about three lakh deletions were recorded.
Read Also : Noida Phase 2 Workers Protest Over Salary Hike Turns Violent; Cars Vandalised, Tear Gas Fired