New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday personally appeared before the Supreme Court to challenge the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, warning that the process could trigger “large-scale disenfranchisement” and unfairly target vulnerable voters ahead of elections.
Addressing the Bench directly, Banerjee said she was appearing not as a party leader but as a representative of the people of West Bengal.
“I belong to this state, and I am grateful for the kindness of this Hon’ble Court,” she said, adding, “But when justice is crying behind closed doors, it gives the feeling that justice is not being received anywhere.”
The Chief Minister told the court that repeated attempts had been made to engage with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“We have written six letters to the Election Commission,” Banerjee said, describing herself as a “bonded labourer” fighting not for political advantage but for democratic rights.
She alleged that the SIR exercise appeared less like a verification drive and more like a deletion operation. According to her, women who changed surnames after marriage, migrant workers, and economically weaker families were most at risk of being struck off electoral rolls due to so-called “logical discrepancies.”
Raising a pointed question, Banerjee asked why West Bengal was being subjected to an urgent revision process while other states were spared.
“Four states are going to polls. Why, after 24 years, what was the hurry to do this in three months? During harvesting season, when people are travelling… more than 100 people died… BLOs died, many are hospitalised. WHY NOT ASSAM?” she asked in court.
She also argued that the Election Commission’s approach had sidelined statutory officials.
“Electoral Registration Officers have been stripped of their powers,” Banerjee alleged, claiming that 8,300 micro observers brought in from BJP-ruled states were deleting names “without proper verification.”
The Chief Minister further alleged that Form 6 applications were not being accepted, resulting in lakhs of deletions, including cases where living citizens were wrongly marked as deceased. Calling the exercise “anti-women,” she said the impact on female voters was disproportionately severe.
Banerjee welcomed the court’s indication that Aadhaar could be accepted as a valid supporting document, saying it had reassured residents. She also questioned why documents like domicile and caste certificates were accepted elsewhere but not uniformly applied in Bengal.
The Chief Justice noted that West Bengal was already represented by senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, and observed that a practical middle path could be explored. The court directed the state to submit, by Monday, a list of Group B officers who could be deployed to assist with the process.
