4 min readKolkataMar 1, 2026 07:02 AM IST
First published on: Mar 1, 2026 at 07:02 AM IST
With the fate of 60.06 lakh registered electors of West Bengal now in the hands of around 500 judicial officers, appointed on Supreme Court orders to decide whether they can remain on the rolls or not, senior Election Commission (EC) officials say the road to get back to the rolls would not be easy for those who end up being deleted.
The final electoral roll of the state after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was published Saturday, showing over 8% decrease in electors and another 8% marked as “under adjudication”.
These 60.06 lakh electors who are in limbo were identified after the EC took the unprecedented decision of deploying 8,100 Central government employees as micro-observers to review the decisions taken by its Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are the statutory authority. After the micro-observers flagged these electors based on discrepancies flagged by the EC’s centralised software, the Supreme Court, which is hearing a challenge to the SIR, on February 20 ordered judicial officers to decide the matters. While the court has not set a deadline for the review and the judicial officers have started their work this week, the West Bengal Assembly elections are expected to be announced soon.
One senior official said those among the 60.06 lakh who are found ineligible and deleted from the rolls would not simply be able to fill a Form 6, which is the EC’s form for new enrolment. “Those who are deleted will be done so after a judicial officer going through the documents they submitted during the SIR. Since the matter is sub judice, we will have to wait for the court’s directions on what to do if those who have been deleted want to reapply. It’s not as easy as filling a Form 6,” the official said.
Any Indian citizen above the age of 18 years who is ordinarily resident in a constituency is eligible to be registered as an elector, as per Article 326 of the Constitution. For this, applicants have to fill out a Form 6, with the required documents, and be approved by their Assembly constituency’s ERO, who is generally a state government official appointed by the ECI in consultation with that state government.
However, it is not clear whether that process will be followed in the case of those deleted in the SIR as the judicial officers have been appointed on orders of the apex court, which invoked its powers under Article 142 to pass any decree or order necessary for complete justice.
When the EC announced the SIR in June last year, its stated motto was that no eligible elector should be left out and no ineligible person should remain on the rolls. As per the June 24, 2025 SIR order of EC, all registered electors had to submit an enumeration form and some categories of electors were required to submit documents to establish their eligibility, including citizenship, as well. So far, it has conducted the exercise in nine states and three Union Territories, while the process is on in Uttar Pradesh.
West Bengal is the only state where micro-observers and judicial officers have been appointed for the SIR.
