West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | Supreme Court allows excluded persons to vote if SIR tribunals clear their names before April 21 & 27

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi directed the Election Commission to make necessary arrangements for inclusion of such persons in supplementary revised electoral rolls.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission to issue a supplementary revised electoral roll for the electors whose claims against alleged wrongful exclusion were favourably decided by April 21 and April 27, just ahead of two phase Assembly polls in West Bengal.

The court said that if the appellate tribunal formed to adjudicate upon the claims for inclusion in electoral rolls in West Bengal, decided the matter ahead of two phase polls, such people would be allowed to cast their votes.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the Election Commission to make necessary arrangements for inclusion of such persons in supplementary revised electoral rolls.

In its order on April 13, the bench said, "There is thus no gainsaying that, keeping in mind the multitiered safeguards put in place by this court, it becomes clear that if an appeal is allowed by the appellate tribunal and a conclusive direction for inclusion or exclusion is issued, such directions shall be duly effectuated prior to the State of West Bengal proceeding to polling on April 23 or April 29, 2026, as the case may be."

The court invoked powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to direct the EC that, wherever the appellate tribunals are able to decide the appeals by April 21 or April 27, 2026, as the case may be, such appellate orders would be given effect to by issuing a supplementary revised electoral roll, and all necessary consequences with respect to the right to vote would follow.

"However, it goes without saying that the mere pendency of appeals preferred by excluded persons before the appellate tribunals would not entitle them to exercise their right to vote," the bench clarified.

"If such a scenario were to be permitted to subsist, the consequence would be that objectors may likewise seek denial of the right to vote to those individuals whose names appear in the revised electoral roll, but against whom such objectors have preferred appeals," the bench added.

The court pointed out, the resultant situation would effectively recreate the very state of affairs that existed prior to the entrustment of the verification exercise to the judicial officers.

"This, in our considered view, cannot be permitted, particularly when judicial officers from the State of West Bengal, duly assisted by judicial officers from the States of Jharkhand and Odisha, have completed what can only be described as a truly herculean task within a remarkably short span of time," the bench said in its order.

The court was then informed 34 lakh appeals were filed not only against wrongful exclusion but also against inclusion in the revised electoral rolls. As many as 19 appellate tribunals were formed to deal with those appeals from April 13, 2026.