The Election Commission of India (ECI) submitted a detailed response to the Supreme Court, stating that out of a total of 3,831,429 appeals arising from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of West Bengal electoral rolls, only 126,194 have been decided. The remaining 3,705,235 appeals are still pending before the appointed Appellate Tribunals. The data was provided in response to an application filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament Derek O’Brien, who is seeking fresh polls in 31 assembly constituencies.
Scale of the SIR Appeals in West Bengal
The figures disclosed by the ECI break down the appeals into two primary categories: 2,221,118 appeals were filed by voters whose names were excluded or deleted from the rolls, while 1,610,311 appeals challenged inclusions. Of the total appeals, 126,194 have been resolved, leaving a substantial backlog of 3,705,235 cases awaiting adjudication.
Geographically, the districts of Murshidabad and Malda account for the highest number of appeals, with 748,216 and 531,617 respectively. Murshidabad has so far decided 595 of its appeals, illustrating the uneven pace of disposal across the state.
TMC’s Petition and the Supreme Court’s Direction
MP Derek O’Brien moved the Supreme Court to declare the election results in 31 West Bengal assembly seats void and to order fresh polls once all pending SIR appeals are resolved. The petition was prompted by a prior directive from a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana, which asked the ECI to specify the number of appeals pending before the election tribunals.
The ECI, however, opposed O’Brien’s plea. In its reply, the commission argued that election outcomes can be challenged only through election petitions under Article 329(b) of the Constitution, not on the basis of alleged faults in the electoral roll. The commission further noted that O’Brien’s main petition had become infructuous after the Supreme Court upheld the West Bengal SIR exercise on May 27.
ECI’s Counterarguments and Proposed Reforms
In its response, the ECI accused O’Brien of conflating all categories of deletions in voter rolls to craft a misleading narrative. The commission clarified that removals of absent, shifted, dead, and duplicate entries were never presented before the judicial officers handling the appeals. When those categories are excluded, the adjudicated deletions in the constituencies of Dinhata, Khargram, Bally and Howrah Uttar were lower than the margins by which the TMC lost, undermining the claim that the SIR exercise altered the electoral outcome.
Moreover, the ECI highlighted that in 21 seats won by the TMC, the number of adjudicated deletions actually exceeded the winning margin, further weakening the argument that roll revisions favoured the opposition.
The commission also filed a counter‑affidavit in a separate petition by Prasenjit Bose, which seeks constituency‑wise SIR data and changes to the appeals process. In that matter, the ECI placed detailed constituency data on record, showing that the voter roll shrank from 7,66,37,529 electors in the pre‑draft roll dated October 27, 2025 to 6,44,52,609 in the final roll of February 28, 2026. A total of 6,00,6675 electors marked as adjudicated were not part of the final roll.
To accelerate the disposal of pending appeals, the ECI proposed increasing the number of tribunals to match the number of parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal. The commission said its software platform would enable judicial officers to conduct hearings from any location, including their residences, thereby reducing logistical delays.
Finally, the ECI noted that the matters raised in Bose’s petition pertain primarily to the functioning, procedure, and accessibility of the appellate mechanism, which fall within the Standard Operating Procedure already framed for the tribunals. The commission also observed that the Supreme Court had granted parties the liberty to approach the Calcutta High Court on these procedural issues.
In sum, the Election Commission maintains that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls did not affect the outcome of the West Bengal assembly elections, and it opposes the TMC’s demand for fresh polls in the 31 contested seats. The commission’s extensive data on appeals, coupled with its proposed reforms, aims to address the backlog while reinforcing the legal framework governing election disputes.
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