West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Credit: PTI Photo
Making her appearance before the Supreme Court, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked it to “save democracy" and "protect the rights of people", claiming her state was being "targeted" with SIR and not Assam.
She alleged before a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that micro-observers have been appointed to bulldoze the people in the state.
She appeared in-person and made submissions before the bench along with senior advocate Shyam Divan.
In her writ petition, she sought a direction to quash the orders issued by the Election Commission for Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls on June 24, 2025, and October 27, 2025.
In her blistering attack, she said, "The problem is when everything is finished, we are not getting justice, and when justice is crying behind the door, I quote Rabindra Nath Tagore. Then, we thought we are not getting justice anywhere. So many times, I have written six letters to EC, including all the details but no reply. I am a very less important person. I am from a common family."
She described the EC as "WhatsApp commission", alleging that micro observers were being drawn from BJP-ruled states.
She claimed the EC only "targeted" Bengal ahead of the elections. "Why after 24 years...what was the hurry to do the SIR exercise in three months? When the harvesting season is there...when people are travelling...more than 100 people died. BLOs died," she said.
The CM claimed that micro-observers can delete all names sitting in office and those deleted have not been allowed to file Form 6.
"Lakhs of people were deleted, and so many people alive declared dead," she claimed.
She said that 58 lakhs names were deleted in the first phase of SIR, and the same had "no scope" to appeal through Form 6 .
"In the second phase, 1.30 crore were deleted. What is the system they are maintaining in other states? They are only targeting West Bengal, and only for Bengal," she said
Banerjee said the logical discrepancy cases should not be deleted from the electoral rolls and should be cleared by the DO or the ERO, not with the micro-observer.
The bench sought the list of officers who can be spared, and once the officers are made available, then a micro-observer may not be required.
Her plea sought online publication of Form 7 recipients to prevent bulk deletions, the empowerment of local electoral registration officers (EROs) to decide inter-state migration cases after five days, and the removal of micro-observers from the verification process—or at the very least, a bar on their participation in hearings and field verifications.
The plea sought directions to ensure that state-issued documents were honoured.
In her submissions, she said the SIR process is only for deletion.
"Suppose a daughter after marriage goes to her in-laws' house, then the question is asked why she is using her husband's title, and that is also (declared) a mismatch," she said.
She claimed that even the names of some poor people who had shifted were deleted in the name of "logical discrepancy".
The ECI, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, sought to counter Banerjee's charges and said that the Bengal government had provided services of only 80 grade-two officers, like SDMs, for overseeing the SIR process.
The bench said, Banerjee's plea was genuine and every issue has a solution and no innocent person would be left out.
The court issued a notice to the EC on Banerjee's petition and fixed the matter for consideration on Monday. Sources said she is likely to appear on Monday before court too to argue her plea.
Her plea claimed unprecedented hardship and distress were being inflicted upon ordinary citizens across West Bengal, and there was a real, immediate and irreversible threat of mass dis-enfranchisement of eligible voters in the forthcoming legislative assembly elections, caused by the opaque, hasty, and exclusionary manner in which the ongoing SIR of the electoral rolls is being implemented.