Supreme Court directions may lead to an extension of deadlines for hearings and publication of West Bengal’s final voters’ list under the Special Intensive Revision, amid scrutiny of nearly 94 lakh logical discrepancy cases flagged by the Election Commission.
The deadlines for concluding hearings on claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in West Bengal, as well as the publication of the final electoral roll, may be extended following recent directions issued by the Supreme Court of India. The development comes amid heightened scrutiny of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) across the state.
According to sources within the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, a final decision on whether to extend the deadlines is expected to be taken on Wednesday. At present, the hearing process on claims and objections is scheduled to conclude on February 7, while the final voters’ list is slated for publication on February 14.
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a series of directives to the ECI, stressing that the SIR process, particularly the verification of voters flagged under the “logical discrepancies” category, must be carried out in a transparent manner and without causing unnecessary hardship to citizens. The apex court underscored the importance of balancing electoral integrity with the protection of genuine voters from procedural harassment.
An official from the CEO’s office explained that if the Election Commission decides to extend the deadline for hearings, it would naturally lead to a corresponding extension for the publication of the final voters’ list. However, it remains uncertain whether such extensions would apply exclusively to West Bengal or also to other states and Union Territories where similar SIR exercises are underway.
West Bengal has been under intense national focus since the commencement of hearings on claims and objections, primarily due to the exceptionally high number of cases categorized as “logical discrepancies.” These discrepancies emerged during a process known as progeny mapping, which involves linking voters through family relationships to detect irregularities in electoral records.
The Election Commission has identified approximately 94 lakh cases of logical discrepancies in West Bengal alone. Such cases involve implausible or inconsistent family-tree data, often pointing to potential attempts to manipulate the electoral roll. The ECI has clarified that the unusually high number of such cases in the state is a result of legacy data issues, population density, migration patterns, and systematic attempts by ineligible individuals to remain listed as voters.
Officials have cited multiple examples to illustrate how fake or ineligible voters allegedly tried to retain their names on the rolls by falsely associating themselves with genuine voters. In several cases, progeny mapping revealed that eight to ten individuals were listed as sons or daughters of a single senior citizen voter. During the verification hearings, it was discovered that the genuine voter had only two biological children and no familial connection with the others.
According to election officials, such manipulation was a deliberate strategy to fabricate a family structure, thereby making it difficult for authorities to remove fake voters without affecting genuine ones. By presenting themselves as siblings within an artificially constructed family unit, these individuals sought to evade deletion from the electoral roll.
One particularly striking case involved a 64-year-old voter who was recorded as having two sons aged 60 and 59. This anomaly implied that the individual became a father at the age of five—an obvious biological impossibility. Subsequent investigations confirmed that both individuals listed as his sons were fake voters who had falsely linked their identities to the genuine voter’s record.
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The Supreme Court’s intervention has prompted the Election Commission to reassess its timelines to ensure that due process is followed and that genuine voters are not disenfranchised due to clerical or systemic errors. Legal experts believe that the court’s emphasis on transparency could lead to more robust safeguards during electoral roll revisions, not just in West Bengal but across the country.
As the Commission prepares to take a final call on the extension of deadlines, all eyes remain on Wednesday’s decision, which is expected to have significant implications for the electoral landscape of West Bengal ahead of upcoming polls.
