The Election Commission of India on Monday told the Supreme Court that since 99.77 per cent of existing voters in Bengal had been supplied with pre-filled enumeration forms for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, allegations of large-scale disenfranchisement of voters were politically motivated and exaggerated.
“It is pertinent to note that pursuant to the above process, 99.77% of the existing electors have been supplied with pre-filled Enumeration Forms, and 70.14% Enumeration Forms have been received. These numbers demonstrate that the claims of the Petitioner regarding errors in implementation of SIR, under-inclusiveness and mass disenfranchisement are highly exaggerated, and are being advanced as a narrative for digital/print/social media to serve vested political interest,” the EC said in an affidavit submitted to the court.
The commission has filed the affidavit in response to a notice issued to it on November 26 by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on a petition filed by Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen. The MP had among other things sought quashing and setting aside of the EC directives dated 27-10-2025 and 24-06-2025 for the SIR in 12 states/Union territories, including Bengal.
According to the EC’s counter-affidavit, for the SIR in Bengal, voters linked with the electoral roll of 2002 have been given probative evidentiary value. The voters are only required to sign the pre-filled enumeration form, which is being provided to them by booth-level officers (BLOs) at their place of ordinary residence, and hand it back to the BLO for uploading, or they themselves can fill it out on ECINet/voters.eci.gov.in.
“That appropriate directions have also been given to the CEO/DEO/ERO/BLO to ensure that special care is taken to ensure that genuine electors, particularly old, sick, PwD, poor and other vulnerable groups are not harassed and are facilitated to the extent possible. Thus, every effort has been made to ensure no eligible elector is excluded from the electoral rolls.
As the existing electoral rolls in the State of West Bengal were published on 05.01.2025 after the completion of Special Summary Revision ("SSR"), the ECI has directed that a pre-filled Enumeration Form will be given to each existing elector whose name features in the electoral roll as on the date of issue of the SIR Order, i.e., 27.10.2025,” the poll panel said.
The affidavit went on: “Such a direction ensures that each of the existing electors feature on the Draft Electoral Roll provided they submit the duly filled Enumeration Forms before the deadline, for which all assistance is being provided on the ground by ECI Officials, BLOs and BLAs appointed by the Political Parties. It is noteworthy that the requirement of submitting Enumeration Forms is put in place to act as an initial filter whereby names of individuals who were deceased, permanently shifted, and electors with duplicate entries are weeded out.”
Schedule for Phase 2 of the SIR covering Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Union territories of Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands had been released vide order number 23/2025-ERS (Vol. II) dated October 27.