Bengal SIR: special observer says he was never told of 16 lakh appeals against cleared voters

The Election Commission's special observer for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of West Bengal's electoral rolls has said he had no official knowledge of about 16.1 lakh appeals filed against voters whom judicial officers had already found eligible. The remarks by Subrata Gupta, a retired IAS officer who now advises Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, have added to questions over who authorised the appeals, which are the subject of a petition in the Supreme Court.

"We had heard about this earlier, but there was no official communication to us about it," Gupta told The Wire in an interview published on Friday, according to Vartha Bharati. He said the observers' role ended with the publication of the supplementary electoral rolls and that they had no access to the relevant records.

What the appeals are

During the SIR, judicial officers decided the cases of about 60 lakh voters whose eligibility had been questioned. According to figures cited by The Wire, 32,53,401 were found eligible and kept on the rolls, and 27,06,096 were found not eligible.

The Election Commission told the Supreme Court in September that 16,10,311 appeals had been filed against the inclusion of voters, alongside 22,21,118 appeals by excluded voters seeking to be restored, The Wire reported. An independent count by the Civic Research Group, cited by The Wire, found 16,08,175 appeals against inclusion, covering nearly half of the voters cleared by the judges.

The Wire reported on 24 October that, according to its sources' reading of the appeal ID numbers, almost all of them were lodged over three days in early April, just before the rolls were frozen at midnight on 7 April and ahead of the first phase of polling on 23 April. The publication said only the Commission could confirm that reading.

What the Commission says

In a counter-affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on 26 October, the Commission said officers of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer's office filed the appeals in their capacity as authorities under the Representation of the People Act, and that the matters were "not brought to the Commission", LiveLaw and Millennium Post reported. It cited Supreme Court orders of 1 and 6 April 2026 on the appeals process.

The affidavit was filed in a petition that challenges a series of decisions attributed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and seeks his suspension. The court issued notice on 5 October but declined at that stage to suspend him.

Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu had asked in a file note dated 12 August who had authorised the appeals "and by whom", LiveLaw reported. The Commission said in its affidavit that observations by individual commissioners are not decisions of the Commission.

Political reactions

Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee asked who had authorised the appeals. He said the Commission's affidavit "has placed blame on the West Bengal CEO, Manoj Agarwal", and pointed out that Agarwal, who was the state's chief electoral officer during the SIR and the Assembly election, was later appointed chief secretary, Millennium Post reported.

No response from the BJP or the state government to Gupta's remarks had been reported by Saturday morning. The Wire said it had written to the state CEO's office and the additional CEO asking who filed the appeals and on what grounds, and had not received a reply.

What happens next

Appellate tribunals in the districts have been hearing the appeals; a judge on one Murshidabad tribunal said on record that many before him had been filed by the additional chief electoral officer, The Wire reported. The Supreme Court petition is pending; no date for the next hearing was given in the reports.