The Calcutta High Court chief justice may approach the chief justices of the Odisha and Jharkhand high court to seek additional resources for completion of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said on Tuesday.

“If the high court chief justice feels further human resource is needed he may approach chief justices of neighbouring states, Odisha and Jharkhand, to draw serving and retired judicial officers of those states in similar rank who shall be entrusted to complete the verification work in West Bengal,” CJI Kant said.

The Election Commission would bear the expenses involving the travel and boarding of these additional judicial officers.

“In addition to judicial officers already assigned, the chief justice of Calcutta High Court will be entitled to draw officers from rank of civil judges (senior and junior division) having experience of not less than three years, so that war can be taken up on war footing,” the CJI said in his order.

The three-judge bench led by CJI Kant and including Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi was hearing a bunch of petitions filed on the ongoing SIR process in Bengal.

The last date for publication of the electoral rolls is February 28. Around 480 companies of central forces will be deputed in Bengal from March 1 onwards.

During the hearing, the apex court noted leaves of all judicial officers in the state stand cancelled by the Calcutta HC

The apex court made it clear that if the verification process for voters marked under logical discrepancy or unmapped categories is not completed by the deadline, any supplementary list published after the deadline will be a part of the final list.

The SC said since its last order on February 20, a total of 250 judicial officers of the rank of district judge and additional district judge have been assigned to verify the nearly 50 lakh pending electors.

“It is estimated that even in the event that each officer disposed of 250 cases per day the entire process will take 80 days. Taking note of this fact, and the time constraints, we are of the view that further clarifications are needed to increase the catchment area of judicial officers,” CJI Kant said.

The CJI said the chief justices of the high courts of Odisha and Jharkhand should sympathetically and urgently consider any request placed by the Calcutta High Court

A report sent by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sugato Paul stated that around 294 judicial officers, serving and retired, have been involved in the verification process.

“He (chief justice of Calcutta High Court) says there is not much resources,” said CJI Kant. “All serving civil judges will also be permitted now. That is the way out. Retired officers and serving ones from Odisha and Jharkhand will also be added now.”

Senior advocate and Trinamool Lok Sabha MP from Serampore, Kalyan Banerjee, objected saying judges from other states would not understand Bengali.

“Let us go by history. At least the states [Odisha and Jharkhand] were a part of it [Bengal] at one point of time. So they understand the dialect at least. Sending from Haryana, Delhi won’t make sense,” CJI Kant said.

The apex court also allowed Aadhaar and the Madhyamik admit cards as proof of identity.

“We state that all such documents whether electronically updated or physically handed over before February 14, 2026 shall be considered,” the SC said.

One advocate informed the apex court across the country people caught with fake documents have their Aadhaar cards issued from Bengal.

“If Aadhaar is fraudulently procured on an industrial scale, it has to be statutorily regulated. Aadhaar was brought in as a document to act as an identity proof and we have to acknowledge that. There is question of citizenship being canvassed on Aadhaar,” said Justice Bagchi.

CJI Kant commented it required a deeper probe and the court was not the forum for this.