Mamata Banerjee Appears in Supreme Court in Person, Alleges ECI of Voter Deletions

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday appeared in person before the Supreme Court, alleging that the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal is being used to wrongly delete genuine voters, prompting the apex court to seek a response from the poll body.

Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Banerjee argued that the SIR exercise was focused solely on exclusion rather than inclusion of voters and was being selectively implemented in non-BJP-ruled states, particularly West Bengal.

“This SIR is for deletion, not inclusion,” Banerjee told the court, alleging that lakhs of voters had been wrongly flagged under ‘logical discrepancies’ without clear justification.

Today, at Banga Bhawan in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri, I met victims of the deeply flawed SIR process, families who have lost loved ones and citizens who, despite being alive, have been falsely marked “dead” and erased from the electoral rolls. Their testimonies were heartbreaking. In a… pic.twitter.com/ptZ5bPmZCn

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 3, 2026

Her petition, argued by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, pointed to alleged procedural lapses by the Election Commission, including non-disclosure of reasons for marking voters as discrepant and the rejection of valid supporting documents. The petitioners informed the court that around 58 lakh voters had already been deleted, nearly 88 lakh voters flagged, and close to three lakh objections remained pending, even as the final voter rolls were scheduled to be published within 11 days.

Raising concerns over linguistic and cultural realities, Banerjee argued that common Bengali surname variations such as Datta and Dutta, Roy and Ray, and Ganguly and Ganguli were being treated as mismatches. Her legal team submitted that these variations reflect local dialect differences, not spelling errors.

Impact On Women

She also flagged the impact on women voters, stating that women who change surnames after marriage were being excluded from the rolls. “A daughter goes to her in-laws’ house after marriage and uses her husband’s surname. Is that a reason to delete her name?” she asked.

Questioning the timing of the revision, Banerjee said the SIR was being conducted during the festival and harvest seasons, when many voters are away from their homes. She alleged that West Bengal was being singled out, asking, “Why West Bengal, why not Assam?”

The Supreme Court, while assuring protection to genuine voters, observed that minor spelling or dialectal differences cannot be grounds for exclusion. “We will ensure that no innocent citizen is left out,” CJI Surya Kant said, while clarifying that names of deceased or legally disqualified persons must be removed as mandated by law.

On the issue of Aadhaar cards, which Banerjee claimed were being rejected despite earlier court directions, the Bench said it could not comment as the question of Aadhaar’s role in establishing citizenship was pending adjudication. “Aadhaar has its own limitations. We have reserved judgment on that issue,” the CJI noted.

Appearing for the Election Commission of India, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi countered the allegations, stating that notices issued during the SIR already contained reasons for discrepancies. He told the court that the Commission had not yet received the fresh grievances raised during the hearing and sought time to examine them.

Dwivedi also addressed Banerjee’s allegation that state officials were excluded from the process, saying the ECI was compelled to appoint micro-observers due to the state government’s lack of cooperation. He claimed the state had provided only around 80 officers, forcing District Level Officers to handle the process under pressure.

Taking note of all submissions, the Supreme Court issued notice to the ECI and scheduled the matter for further hearing on Monday, granting the Commission time to examine the new grievances raised.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions, including those filed by Mamata Banerjee and AITC MP Derek O’Brien, challenging the SIR process in West Bengal. Earlier, the apex court had directed the ECI to publish the list of voters marked under “logical discrepancies”, following allegations of procedural irregularities.