NEW DELHI, May 11 — The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to submit an independent application regarding allegations that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process materially altered the outcome of several assembly contests in West Bengal. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated that claims concerning specific electoral impacts would require a formal interlocutory application for judicial review.
The instruction followed submissions from senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who argued that in 31 constituencies, the BJP’s victory margin was narrower than the number of voters removed from the rolls during the adjudication process. He noted that the overall discrepancy involved nearly 35 lakh pending appeals against voter deletions across the state.
“In many cases, the deletions and the loss margin were almost the same,” Banerjee stated. He cited one instance where a candidate reportedly lost by 862 votes despite more than 5,000 names being removed from the electoral list for that area.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) opposed the TMC’s arguments, asserting that any challenges to election results should be addressed through standard election petitions rather than the current roll revision case. The poll panel maintained that the legal framework for resolving such grievances is already established under existing election law.
Justice Bagchi declared that any assertion that the results were “materially affected” due to pending adjudications would need to be scrutinized through a separate plea. He affirmed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other stakeholders are free to move these fresh applications to bring specific evidence before the court.
Advocates also informed the bench that the disposal of the millions of pending appeals could take years at the current pace. The Chief Justice affirmed that the court’s priority remains the expeditious resolution of these appeals to protect the integrity of the voter list.
