NEW DELHI,4 Feb 2026 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday fought her own case in the Supreme Court as she argued in favour of her plea against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
A trained advocate, Mamata became the first sitting CM to present arguments in person during a Supreme Court hearing. She had moved an interlocutory application in the court seeking permission for the same.
She has long opposed the SIR drive in the state and wants the upcoming Assembly elections in the state to be conducted as per the voters list of 2025.
During her in-person submissions to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee targeted the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging mass voter deletions, appointment of micro observers from BJP-ruled states and an attempt to “bulldoze” the people of Bengal.
She also questioned why the SIR exercise didn’t take place in Assam, which is a BJP-ruled state.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi heard a batch of petitions, including those filed by Banerjee, Mostari Banu and TMC MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen. Item 37 is Mamata Banerjee’s, the court was told.
The hearing which Mamata Banerjee attended on Wednesday comes days after the Supreme Court issued directions to the ECI to make the SIR more transparent, accessible, and voter-friendly in West Bengal. “See the strain and stress going on for ordinary people. Over one crore people have been issued notices…we are going to pass some orders,” the bench observed on January 12.
The SIR was rolled out in West Bengal on November 4, 2025 and the draft electoral roll was published on December 16. The last date for submission of claims and objections was January 19. The final electoral roll is expected to be published on February 14, but the deadline may be extended given how the hearings in the Supreme Court go.
Following the hearing on Wednesday, TMC MP and advocate Kalyan Banerjee informed about the key points argued by Mamata Banerjee:
Only the deletion process is going on, and no inclusion process has been taken up for 4 months, Banerjee argued.
She also argued that the process is going on hurriedly in 2-3 cases, where a non-BJP government is there; however, in the BJP state, the process has not commenced.
As far as the logical discrepancy is concerned, she has said that very minor mistakes have also been taken very seriously.
She alleged that the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was being used to “target West Bengal” and remove genuine voters rather than correct errors.
“This SIR is for deletion, not inclusion,” she said, alleging that lakhs of voters had been wrongly flagged under “logical discrepancies”, she said.
Her senior counsel Shyam Divan referred to a huge number of unmapped voters in the SIR process and said there was little time left for remedial measures.
“Unmapped voters are 32 lakhs. 1.36 crores in logical discrepancy list. Hearings pending 63 lakhs,” he was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
NEXT HEARING ON MONDAY: The Supreme Court bench ordered the issuance of notice in two petitions and directed that a connected matter, in which the ECI has already filed an affidavit, also be listed on Monday. The Court said all issues would be heard together on the next date.
It directed the Election Commission to send notices over SIR carefully. “Also to ECI… please send notices carefully. You cannot put out notable authors, etc,” the SC bench said.
The remarks come weeks after the poll panel sent notices to several public figures, including former navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash (retd), Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, and Indian cricketer Mohammed Shami under the SIR.
Concluding her arguments before the Supreme Court as she fought her own case against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee said: “Please protect the people rights. We are grateful”.
Mamata Banerjee questioned ECI’s intent behind conducting SIR in West Bengal and questioned why the exercise was not being carried out in Assam.
“When people are out they did it. BLOs died by suicide and they blamed the election officials. It is because of the harassment, West Bengal is targeted, why not Assam?! Why not Assam?!!,” she was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
She later alleged that micro observers were being appointed from BJP-ruled states in an attempt to “bulldoze” the people of Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee alleged discrepancies in the SIR process, alleging that names of some women were deleted from the list because they changed their last names after marriage.
“Suppose daughter after marriage goes to in-laws house…why she is using husband’s title…that is also mismatch…There are some daughters who shifted to in-laws house…their names also deleted,” Banerjee said.
She had moved an interlocutory application in the court seeking permission to present arguments in her own case against SIR in Bengal.
Her senior advocate Shyam Divan said that the ECI must upload the reasons for citing each of the names in the logical discrepancy list.
“After directions of this court, name, age, gender is there and in reasons is only D and M. No reasons are given,” Divan said.
“This court had directed that logical discrepancy list has to be displayed,” advocate Shyam Diwan told the Supreme Court bench, citing an earlier order.
In its earlier order, the Supreme Court had ordered the ECI to publish lists of voters issued notices for “logical discrepancies” at local administrative offices to ensure transparency.
Picture credit law chakra channel
