West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday personally appeared before the Supreme Court to raise concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, warning that the exercise could potentially exclude a large number of genuine voters ahead of upcoming elections.
Addressing the Constitution Bench directly, Banerjee said her presence in court was not political but driven by responsibility towards the people of West Bengal. She expressed appreciation for the court’s patience and remarked that when justice seems inaccessible, public confidence in democratic institutions weakens.
The Chief Minister told the court that the state government had repeatedly flagged its concerns to the Election Commission of India, stating that at least six formal representations had already been submitted. She described herself as fighting not for party interests but for a wider public cause, portraying her role as one of obligation rather than privilege.
The Chief Justice of India noted that West Bengal had already approached the court through a formal petition and was being represented by senior legal experts, including Kapil Sibal, who had earlier pointed out procedural gaps and the risk of eligible voters being wrongly excluded.
Banerjee argued that the manner in which the SIR process was being implemented appeared to focus more on deletion than verification. She highlighted how women who changed surnames after marriage, migrant workers, and economically weaker families were particularly vulnerable to removal due to technical or documentation-related inconsistencies.
She also informed the Bench that public anxiety had reduced after the court indicated that Aadhaar could be accepted as one of the supporting identity documents. However, she questioned why Bengal was subjected to stricter norms when other states were allowed to rely on domicile and caste certificates.
Raising the issue of timing, Banerjee questioned the urgency of conducting the revision within a short span after more than two decades, especially during an agricultural season when large sections of the population are mobile. She pointed to reported casualties and health issues among Booth Level Officers (BLOs) during the process and questioned why similar exercises were not undertaken uniformly across states like Assam.
The Chief Minister further alleged that the authority of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) had been diluted, claiming that thousands of micro-observers from BJP-governed states were overseeing deletions without adequate ground verification. She also flagged restrictions on filing Form 6, alleging that this had led to large-scale deletions, including cases where living citizens were wrongly marked as deceased, calling the entire exercise discriminatory and particularly harmful to women.
