West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday reached the Supreme Court ahead of a crucial hearing on the petitions challenging the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
The chief minister has also moved an interlocutory application seeking permission to appear and argue in person.
Mamata is personally present in court room one along with her lawyers. A gate pass was issued in the chief minister's name on Tuesday.
As per the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi is scheduled to hear the petitions of Banerjee and three others filed by Mostari Banu and TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen.
The move significantly escalates Mamata’s confrontation with the poll panel, as she maintains the SIR, initiated ahead of the assembly elections, of risking large-scale disenfranchisement under the guise of verification.
In her plea, Mamata has sought the quashing of all SIR-related orders issued by the ECI on June 24, 2025, and October 27, 2025, along with all connected directives. She has also sought a writ of mandamus directing the ECI to conduct the upcoming assembly elections using the unaltered 2025 electoral roll, contending that the SIR’s reliance on a 2002 baseline and its “onerous” verification framework threatens the voting rights of genuine electors.
The petition raises particular concern over cases flagged for so-called “logical discrepancies”, such as minor spelling variations or name mismatches. Mamata has urged the court to bar hearings in such cases and instead direct election authorities to carry out suo motu corrections using available records. She has sought a direction that all such cases be transparently uploaded on the websites of chief electoral officers (CEOs) and district electoral officers (DEOs).
Her plea also calls for the online publication of Form 7 recipients to prevent bulk deletions, the empowerment of local electoral registration officers (EROs) to decide inter-state migration cases after five days, and the removal of micro-observers from the verification process—or at the very least, a bar on their participation in hearings and field verifications. She has sought directions to ensure that state-issued documents are honoured, field inquiries are conducted strictly in accordance with the ECI’s June 24 guidelines, and complainants filing Form 7 objections are required to appear in person.
Mamata’s petition comes days after the Supreme Court’s recent intervention to ease what it described as the “stress and strain” faced by ordinary voters during the SIR exercise in West Bengal.
Mamata had walked out of the EC headquarters on Monday, saying she had been humiliated. On Tuesday, she said: “Yesterday, he started shouting. I said don’t shout. We are not your bonded labour or servant.... We took flowers for them, sweets also.... And after how they behaved with us, we boycotted them.”
Accusing the EC of targeting Bengal, Mamata said: “Domicile certificate is allowed in all the states. Family register, government schemes, land certificates and other documents given by the government are allowed. But in Bengal, nothing is allowed. Why?”
Mamata evaded questions on any coordination with other parties on opposing the SIR. On the possibility of allying with the Congress, she said: “Trinamool always fights on its own in Bengal. Other parties fight against Trinamool.”
Addressing journalists, Abhishek said: “The EC will tell you that micro-observers are only being appointed to observe. I am saying this on record that if the ERO agrees with the micro-observers’ observation, your name is being automatically deleted. I have concrete proof and we will submit this before the court.”
Abhishek pointed out that despite the Supreme Court’s orders, the “logical discrepancies” lists had not yet been published. “The SC directed that two separate lists should be published —unmapped and logical discrepancies. Now, the EC has merged both so that BLOs and DEOs face more problems,” he added.