The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain an oral plea against the alleged addition of five to seven lakh new voters to West Bengal's electoral rolls ahead of the Assembly elections.
Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for petitioners challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state, mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Monday.
Referring to media reports, Guruswamy said the Election Commission has added nearly five to seven lakh new voters in the state using Form 6. She contended that the action violated the court's earlier order allowing such additions only if the voters' appeals against deletion from electoral rolls are considered by the appellate tribunals.
"This court's order is being used to file these Form 6 in bulk! This will have an outsized impact on the elections," she said, reported Live Law.
Referring to the court's earlier order, Guruswamy said the addition of voters through Form 6 is not permissible after the cut-off date.
However, the CJI told her that the plea cannot be entertained unless a petition is filed in the court.
"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.
"We can't have a fishing inquiry," the CJI observed, adding, "We will not entertain like this."
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.
While hearing the West Bengal SIR matter last week, the apex court directed the EC to issue a supplementary revised electoral roll to include the voters whose appeals against the deletion of their names are allowed by appellate tribunals.
The court said the mere pendency of appeals preferred by the excluded persons before the appellate tribunals shall not entitle them to exercise their right to vote.
"We, therefore, invoke our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India and direct the ECI 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.
"However, it goes without saying that the mere pendency of appeals preferred by excluded persons before the appellate tribunals shall not entitle them to exercise their right to vote," the bench said in its April 13 order.
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.
(With inputs from PTI)
