An online signature campaign petitioning the Chief Justice of India to restore the voting rights of millions disenfranchised by the “special” electoral roll revision began on Thursday.
Organisers of the campaign, a civil society collective formed in the wake of the contentious SIR exercise, said individuals and organisations could also send an email to the CJI at supremecourt@nic.in.
The content of the email mirrors the online petition.
“I/we, as concerned citizen(s) of India, would like to request you to ensure respite for millions of residents of the state of West Bengal who have lost their voting rights as a result of the ongoing SIR process,” it states.
“As a result of this unprecedented exercise, at first 5,46,053 regular voters lost their rights on February 28, 2026, while later on, another 27,16,393 people lost their voting rights from the ‘under adjudication’ category. This huge list of 32,62,446 deleted voters includes people from all religions, castes, and creed, but a significantly disproportionate percentage are from women and minority categories.”
On February 28, the Election Commission published a preliminary “final” list that placed over 60 lakh names under adjudication and deleted more than 5 lakh names. In 15 supplementary lists published since March 23, over 27 lakh (2.7 million) voters were removed from the list of those under adjudication.
In total, 90.82 lakh people have been removed from the revised electoral rolls in Bengal. Of these, around 58 lakh were classified as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate voters in a list published on December 16, 2025.
Deleted voters can appeal to tribunals set up by the Supreme Court, each headed by a retired high court judge. However, only two cases have been heard by one of the 19 tribunals so far. Both were filed by resourceful election candidates, and both had their voting rights restored. It appears almost certain that the others will not be able to vote this time.
Bengal is voting in two phases: April 23 and April 29. Electoral rolls for the first phase were frozen on April 6, and rolls for the second phase will be frozen at midnight on April 9.
The online campaign was launched at noon on Thursday. By 10pm, close to 1,000 people had signed the petition, many sharing it on social media.
The petition further states: “There are reports coming from all corners of the state that all of them are approaching/have already approached the Hon’ble Tribunal as well as the Election Commission of India to reinstate their names in the said list. However, it appears unlikely that all these appeals will be addressed and the SIR will be completed before the election and in such a situation, I request you to allow all these voters to cast their votes this time, as refraining a legitimate voter from exercising her/his democratic right will go against Natural Justice.”
Punyabrata Goon, a doctor and rights activist, is one of the campaign initiators. “Even if we assume many deletions were fair, many more were not. Our appeal is aligned with the principles of natural justice. Until their appeals are decided by the tribunal, these voters should be allowed to cast their votes. Our target is to get at least 50,000 signatures before April 13,” Goon said.
The SC will hear the SIR case next on April 13.
Bengal’s civil society has a history of active political engagement. The mass movement against the formidable Left Front began with civil society-led protests. During the last Assembly elections, a campaign called “No Vote To BJP” played a key role in swaying public opinion against the saffron juggernaut.
From the CAA-NRC protests to RG Kar, civil society in the state has often been at the forefront of large-scale demonstrations.
Mahasweta Samajdar, editor of a travel magazine and one of the campaigners, said the judiciary must protect those “unfairly” removed from the rolls. “Our legal system treats a person as innocent until proven guilty. By that logic, voters who have appealed to the tribunal must be allowed to vote unless the tribunal decides their case,” she said.
