Fourth Retired Judge Quits a West Bengal SIR Tribunal: The 38 Lakh Voter Appeals and How Roll Appeals Work
Retired Calcutta High Court judge Biswajit Basu resigned from a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) appellate tribunal in West Bengal on 7 November 2026, citing personal reasons. He sent his resignation to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
He is the fourth judge to quit. The others are former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam (the first, in May 2026), former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh and former Justice Indrajit Chatterjee, who had complained of a long daily commute to the tribunal at Joka.
West Bengal has 19 such appellate tribunals, each headed by a retired Calcutta High Court judge. They hear appeals from people whose names were added to or removed from the voter list during the SIR. They were set up after a Supreme Court direction of 10 March 2026.
About 38 lakh appeals are pending. According to an Election Commission affidavit of September 2026, 22 lakh of the 27 lakh people removed on the ground of "logical discrepancies" have appealed, and 16.10 lakh appeals have been filed against inclusions.
The SIR in the State ran from October 2025 to February 2026. Over 91 lakh electors, about 13% of all voters before the exercise, were deleted from the rolls.
Tribunal judges have complained about the slow pace of disposal. Minutes of their 11 August meeting record that most judges said the ECINET portal had not worked as intended.
Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls
An electoral roll is the official list of voters for a constituency. Only people whose names are on it can vote. A Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a very detailed check in which this list is rebuilt almost from scratch. Officials go from house to house, collect forms from every voter and check their eligibility, and then publish a draft list for claims and objections before the final list.
The SIR is the exercise that created the flood of appeals. Each deletion or inclusion that someone disputes now has to be heard by a tribunal, and with 38 lakh appeals before just 19 tribunals, the slow pace and the string of resignations show how hard it is to correct a revised roll quickly.
Representation of the People Act, 1950: The Law Behind Voter Lists and Seats
The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RPA 1950) is the law passed by Parliament that decides who can be a voter, how voter lists are made and corrected, and how many seats each State gets. Think of it as the rulebook for getting ready for elections. The actual conduct of elections (nominations, voting, disputes) is covered by a separate law, the RPA 1951.
The RPA 1950's normal appeal route runs through district officials and the State's Chief Electoral Officer. In West Bengal, the sheer number of disputed SIR decisions led the Supreme Court to direct a special layer of tribunals led by retired High Court judges, which is why judicial officers are now doing work the Act gives to the election machinery.
ECINET and Electoral Roll Management: Technology for Voter Services
ECINET is the Election Commission of India's single digital platform that joins more than 40 of its separate mobile apps and websites. Voters, election officials and political parties can use one login to register, search the voter list, track applications and get election information. Behind it sits the database that officials use to add, change or remove names from the electoral roll.
Tribunal judges said ECINET had not worked as intended, which slowed the disposal of appeals. The ECI later moved to let judges e-sign and upload orders, after they flagged that an Aadhaar authentication requirement on the portal was holding up final orders.
- Biswajit Basu: resigned on 7 November 2026; fourth retired judge to quit a West Bengal SIR tribunal
- Others who resigned: T.S. Sivagnanam (first, May 2026), Ranjit Kumar Bagh, Indrajit Chatterjee
- Number of SIR appellate tribunals in West Bengal: 19 (each headed by a retired Calcutta High Court judge)
- Supreme Court direction to form tribunals: 10 March 2026
- Pending appeals: about 38 lakh (22 lakh against exclusions on "logical discrepancy"; 16.10 lakh against inclusions)
- West Bengal SIR: October 2025 to February 2026; over 91 lakh names deleted (about 13% of voters)
- Appeals under the normal law: Section 24 of the RPA 1950 (District Magistrate level, then Chief Electoral Officer)
- Constitutional basis for rolls: Article 324 (ECI control) and Article 326 (adult suffrage at 18)