New Delhi, 10 April (H.S.):

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to examine concerns over West Bengal's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after a lawyer highlighted thousands of unresolved appeals stranded due to the Election Commission's April 9 freeze, potentially disenfranchising voters ahead of imminent polls.

Before a bench presided by Chief Justice Surya Kant, counsel urged urgent intervention, noting appellate tribunals chaired by ex-Calcutta High Court Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam—had recently upheld deletions as arbitrary, yet the freeze precludes additions for Phase 1 constituencies polling April 23.

The court clarified that exclusion from this cycle does not bar future enfranchisement but assured substantive hearing on April 13, amid criticisms of SIR's scale over 27 lakh deletions and compressed timelines risking electoral inequities.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar