The West Bengal SIR: ‘logical discrepancy, trust deficit’--and the deleted 27 lakh electors The ECI pivoted from the Bihar SIR process. In Bihar, documents were made mandatory before the draft stage, later relaxed. In WB documents were not asked before the draft stage, and depended on a software which picked 1.40 cr cases of April 27, Kolkata 32-year-old research scholar Najibur Rahaman Mallick’s chance to vote in this election in West Bengal doesn’t seem possible.
His name has been excluded from the electoral roll–one among the 27 lakh names whose names were deleted after being picked out in the name of “logical discrepancy” without ascribing any reason. This is despite possessing various documents as age and domicile proof. Mallick is the “victim” of Election Commission of India’s (ECI) controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
He belongs to the Other Backward Class (OBC) Muslim community, and is a resident of Helan village of Hoogly district, claims to have voted every election since becoming eligible at the age of 18. Helan village in Purushura Assembly Constituency of Hooghly district has two voting booths, and the names of 1568 electors were recorded in the draft list published on December 16, 2025.
In a span of two-and-a-half months, more than 320 names were put under deleted from his village, without any physical or online hearing. He filed an appeal on April 4, which till April 25 shows “pending”. “Disenfranchisement is just the beginning of the troubles for us,” said Mallick, who is still waiting for a clearance to vote, pending appeal of his deletions since April 4 in Appellate Tribunals.
He is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Bengali language and literature, told me at his house in Helan village. Mallick belongs to the “Jolah (Ansari-momin)” Other Backward Community, and he also showed a government issued backward class certificate mentioning the same. Before the poll began, more than 27 lakh electors were already deleted after adjudication with barely more than 100 names cleared by the Appellate Tribunal after initial adjudication of more than six million electors.
In the two phase polls in West Bengal, 152 constituencies out of 294 voted on April 23. In the second phase of the polls, people in the remaining constituencies including Mallick will vote April 29. With barely two days to the second phase, will Mallick get to exercise his right to choose the next government? The politics of illegal migrants A controversy had erupted between the state’s ruling dispensation headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Centre headed by Narendra Modi, who along with his second-in-command Home Minister Amit Shah, have been alleging Banerjee of sheltering illegal immigrants belonging from Muslim minority community for “vote bank”.
Banerjee, however, had taken a stand that the entire process is “backdoor NRC” which she would not allow in the state. In West Bengal, the ruling party at the Centre, the BJP, has always wanted to make inroads in the state electorally, however, despite several attempts it has not been able to form the government. The BJP has always alleged mass infiltration of “illegal immigrants” and has accused the TMC government of treating them as vote banks.
The SIR (Special Intensive Revision), has been widely seen as a precursor to citizenship exercise, and identifying illegal immigrants and striking out their names from the electoral rolls. West Bengal saw violence, panic, as well as the opposition to the implementation of the SIR process. For instance in Malda district of West Bangladesh closer to the Bangladesh border, a protest took a ugly turn when several judicial officers–deployed for clearance of electors’ voting chances in this election by verifying their records–were held hostage.
The incident drew the ire of the apex court of India, the BJP, as well as the CM of West Bengal. However, the anxieties of people in Malda, as well as in other parts of the state has certain grounding in the SIR process being completed, without the Appellate Tribunals completing the hearing. The two sides to conducting elections in the world's largest ECI along with thousands of central and state government employees, under its superintendance, manage several complexities during the election process.
The Special Intensive Revision too has seemingly solved one problem of the ECI, long troubling the poll body: the removal of electors under the ASDD list. Otherwise hard to remove as the country lacked scalability of technology, and due to political sensitivities. This is a crucial step in ensuring that the voting percentage rises, and managing the complex system of round the year electoral roll updation.
Before the SIR, officials had told this reporter that it was “difficult to remove the names” from the electoral roll due to the political sensitivities. However, this time in West Bengal, the ECI has How the ECI pivoted in West Bengal from the Bihar SIR–i.e. the road to the West Bengal elections went through Bihar. In West Bengal, total electors, before the process of the SIR began, stood at 7,66,37,529 or 70.6 million or 7.663 crore.
The eastern India state has a porous border with Bangladesh, and since the announcement of the SIR, various reports showed hundreds of illegal immigrants packing their bags and leaving West Bengal in November last year. The second phase of SIR was announced in October last year in multiple states including West Bengal. The process detailed a timeline for distribution of pre-printed enumeration forms, and it directed “no document is to be collected from the electors during the enumeration phase”.
This remained different from that of Bihar. ECI then mentioned the period of filing claims and objections–inclusion and removal of electors. After this process, ECI detailed one “notice phase”, which was for “issuance, hearing and verification”--which was also different from Bihar. ECI then added that the decision on enumeration forms and disposal of claims and objections was to be done “concurrently” by the Electoral Registration Officers.
After the process began, the electors submitted their completed forms including their parents’ name to their respective Booth Level Officers (BLOs), the last person on the ground working under the superintendence of the ECI. Later, those forms were collected and However, electors like Mallick had little clue what the process entailed as the process in West Bengal for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process has been different from that of Bihar, with Election Commission of India (ECI) increasing the number of steps for an elector to be verified and becoming eligible to vote.
In Bihar, the ECI had also shared pre-printed enumeration forms to more than 7 crore electors in which they were asked to submit certain documents, with the names of their parents/guardians present in the 2002-03 list, which the ECI took as a base year. Those who were not in the 2002-03 list had to submit certain documents with age/domicile proof mirroring the citizenship by birth cut off years.
This was said to be done by the enumeration phase alone, and after the publication of draft roll, objections and claims were made to exclude or include the electors. Moreover, the process in Bihar remained chaotic with the ECI first ordering mandatory submission of the documents at the enumeration phase or else the names would be struck off at the draft SIR stage. However, an investigation by this reporter earlier showed how the ECI first announced the mandatory submission of documents before the draft stage, however, later relaxed it.
It left claims and objections–of removal and inclusion of the electors at the whims of officials at the Electoral Registration Officers’ level or Assistant Electoral Registration Officers’s level–who are generally the officials at the village cluster level or a block officials the respective state governments at the constituency levels–operating having additional posts, working under the superintendence of the ECI.
The investigation was backed by the fact that ECI had brought out a release a few days later stating that the electors needed to submit the enumeration forms “with or without the documents” at the draft stage. Mallick said that during the enumeration phase in October, November only names and their parents' names were merely asked for a passport sized photograph. Through this process, the ECI is said to have “mapped” the electors, i.e. linking the names with the 2002-03 cut off year electoral roll.
A draft list was published December 16 last year, and Mallick’s name was included among the 1568 electors who submitted their enumeration forms from Helan village. In West Bengal a total of 7, 08, 630 electors were in the draft roll, issued by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer Every state in India has a CEO–headed by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer–who heads the work of conducting or managing the assembly and Lok Sabha election in the state, reporting directly to the ECI.
The remaining officials such as District Magistrates or Deputy Commissioners at the district level–also IAS officers–Sub-Divisional Magistrates or Officers at the sub-division level, Block Development Officers at the village cluster level and other junior officials–predominantly from the state’s administrative services–also double up as officials working under the superintendance of the ECI.
A press release issued by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal February 28 said that the final SIR roll included 6.44 crores electors, in which 60.06 lakh or six million electors were put in “doubtful and pending cases” category and marked for “adjudication”. The draft list did not name 58, 20, 899 electors as their Enumeration Forms “were not received” by the BLOs, and were put under categories of Deceased (2,416,852), Absent (1,220,039), Shifted (1,988,076), Already Enrolled (138,328) and Others (57,604).
However, there was no clarity on the Others’ category. Instead of pushing for the need for submitting mandatory documents at the enumeration phase, it marked 1.36 crore or 13.6 million electors to clear their names emanating out of “logical discrepancies” problem: mismatch in names, misconnection arising out of parents having six children, age gaps between the parents and their children among others.
Since the ECI did not ask for documents at the enumeration stage, it sent notices to the electors, including Mallick. Mallick claims to have “received a notice on January 29”, however, it remains dated January 16. It said that his father’s name was claimed by six other people, “raising suspicions of a possible misconnection”. The notice added: “In view of the discrepancy or possible mismatch with the voter list prepared during the previous SIR, you are requested to appear before the undersigned on January 16, 2026 at 2.30 pm…along with the original documents which will be sent for authenticity.”
Mallick said that he immediately rushed to the Block office and submitted the requisite documents, however, later his name appeared in the final SIR rolls marked as adjudicated, published in the final West Bengal SIR roll February 28 this year. Mallick has five other siblings, and barring one, all did not get clearance to vote. He said, however, their wives have been cleared to vote.
“My grandparents were born in West Bengal, part of British India then. They had one son, my late father, and he had six children including me. Tell us why we are not allowed to vote?” Mallick asked. Between the publication of the draft and the final electoral roll, there is a period of making “claims and objections”–applications for removal and inclusion of names in the electoral roll–as well as also for the inclusion of new electors, and after due hearings, decisions are taken.
However, in West Bengal the Commission differed from this process– apart from taking “claims and objections” or new additions alone–and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AERO)/EROs sent notices to the electors highlighting various “logical discrepancies”, and gave a time slot for a hearing (AEROs/EROs who are generally state government employees and have quasi judicial powers).
According to the court records, 1.40 crore electors were marked under the category of “logical discrepancy” in West Bengal, which included: “mismatch of the father’s name, a mismatch of parents’ ages, a difference in parents’ ages of more than 50 years, a difference in grandparents’ ages of less than 40 years, and those having more than six Mallick’s name was deleted after adjudication without any physical or online hearing, and “without attributing any reasons”.
Mallick told me that many of the age mismatches were adjudicated and their names were cleared. In the “final SIR list” out on February 28, there were 5.46 lakh deletions, and 60.06 lakh people put under adjudication i.e. doubtful voters. The final electors as mentioned above remained at 6.44 crore on “I have no clue when the adjudication process happened, and I know the Supreme Court had intervened in this matter and that judicial officers were deployed.
After I submitted my documents to the AERO, he signed on it on January 29. In February last, my name along with others was The apex court orders, trust deficit, and letters by the Calcutta High Several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court last year leading to hearings on the SIR matter regularly, including on the curious case of picking out 1.36 crore electors under “logical discrepancies” categories excluding 40 lakh electors in the “unmapped” category.
The “logical discrepancy” category became a controversial issue within the controversial SIR in West Bengal. The court records give us a sense of what went behind the scene. The first hearing happened in November, and since the apex court was already hearing petitions questioning the validity of SIR case, it asked the High Courts of other states including West Bengal to keep the SIR petitions in “abeyance”.
On January 19, 2026–between the publication of the draft, and final electoral roll–the SC issued a set of directions, in a bid to “enable” the electors put under the “logical discrepancy” category. It directed the officials to display the names in panchayats, and all public spaces such as circle office, block offices (village cluster), and at the sub-division levels in the rural areas, while in each wards in urban areas; submit “documents/objections” even at the panchayat bhawans or block offices.
The court directed the ECI, and the state government for “deployment” of adequate staff, for receipt of documents, and hearing to the affected persons. In between the ECI had already asked the state government to deploy central government officers or “group B” officers from central PSUs, and nationalised banks for the purpose of electoral roll preparation including identifying discrepancies.
The lawyer from the ECI told the court that the West Bengal state government had failed to provide “competent” people to discharge the SIR process. Mamata Banerjee then assured the court of giving the names of the people. On a later date, it was noted that West Bengal will give 8505 “group B officers”, for the SIR exercise. The records also state that micro observers or the government officials shall only assist the prescribed statutory authority in taking the final decision.
“The stage where the process is now stuck relates to the adjudication of [pending] claims and objections of the persons who have been included in the ‘logical discrepancy/unmapped category’. Most of the persons to whom notices under this category were issued have submitted their documents in support of their claims for inclusion in the voter list,” a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymala Bagchi, and Vipul In the next date of hearing, the need for deputing “Group A” officers to perform the duties of the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO), which are of the rank of Sub-Divisional Officers/Magistrates at the assembly constituency level, arose.
However, the apex court noted that there is an “unfortunate blame game” and “a case of trust deficit” between two constitutional bodies, the ECI and the state government. The apex court then said that since there has been a “serious dispute” on the “substantive/actual rank” of the officers provided by the state government and the court directed the Calcutta High Court to deploy judicial officers to ensure fairness in the adjudication of the the “genuineness of the documents” and consequential determination for “inclusion or exclusion from the voter list as agreed by both sides”.
It also noted that most of the persons to whom notices under this category were issued have submitted their documents in support of their claims for inclusion in the voter list. In between the Calcutta High Court shot a letter to the Supreme Court highlighting the “enormity” of the exercise to be undertaken in “verification of approximately 50,00,000 cases of ‘logical discrepancy/unmapped category’ assigned to 250 judicial officers.
The letter said that even in the event that each judicial officer disposes of around 250 cases per day, the entire exercise would stretch to 80 days, as per the court records. The apex court then directed the HC to draw a pool from the civil side, and seek help from Jharkhand, Odisha. In the next hearing on March 10, another communication by the Calcutta HC noted more than one million or 10.16 lakh objections have been disposed of, and 700 judicial officers are working “day and night”.
It also “expressed an urgent concern, which seems to have been created due to some mistake at the level of the ECI”, however, did not mention the issue in detail. On April 1, the apex court noted the disposal of 47.3 lakh cases–and in all the cases, the One of the orders mentioned the HC letter verbatim: “...we started the SIR exercise in the State of West Bengal in the last week of February, 2026.
The Judicial Officers of the State with the assistance of the Judicial Officers of Jharkhand and Odisha have completed the herculean task of deciding more than sixty lakh objections in the SIR process in the first week of April, 2026.” On the issue of Appellate Tribunals, the apex court said that a uniform guidelines need to be made, and ordered that the entire records need to be revisited while deciding the cases.
“...[The Appellate Tribunals are] also required to duly communicate the reasons for their decisions to the concerned parties.” Since the elections more than 27 lakh EPICs still await their clearance to vote–if they are allowed the next time.