We can't have fishing inquiry, says Supreme Court on allegation of addition of voters in West Bengal

The West Bengal Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, and the votes will be counted on May 4.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined a “fishing inquiry” into alleged addition of five to seven lakh voters in West Bengal electoral rolls, saying such pleas can be examined only upon filing a proper petition through the process.

“We can’t have a fishing inquiry,” a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, as senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy mentioned the matter.

She claimed according to media reports, there was an addition of nearly five to seven lakh voters in West Bengal using Form 6.

Form 6 is for inclusion of name in the electoral roll for a first-time voter or on shifting from one constituency to another.

Guruswamy said the addition of voters through Form 6 is not permissible after the cut-off date and that adding so many voters would have an impact on the upcoming Assembly election in the state.

“You challenge it, we will see,” the CJI said.

Guruswamy said they do not have enough information and the final electoral roll is yet to be published.

On this, the bench said, “We can’t have a fishing inquiry. We will not entertain like this.”

On repeated mentioning of the matter related to West Bengal Special Intensive Revision, the bench said, ''We should have constituted a separate bench for this.''

The apex court is already dealing with a batch of pleas related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in West Bengal.

The chief justice of the Calcutta High Court has set up 19 tribunals headed by former high court chief justices and judges to decide appeals against deletion or exclusion of names from the voters’ list.

Earlier, the apex court directed the EC that, wherever the appellate tribunals are able to decide the appeals by April 21, 2026, or April 27, 2026, as the case may be, such appellate orders shall be given effect to by issuing a supplementary revised electoral roll and all necessary consequences with respect to the right to vote shall follow.