Four days, 60L cases, Sat deadline: SIR scrutiny keeps state on edge

Kolkata: With only 4 days left for the publication of final electoral roll, the fate of about 60 lakh electors in Bengal is still hanging in the balance.Some 200-odd judicial officers began the scrutiny of documents and final disposal of pending cases on Tuesday, amid minor software glitches and other technical issues.
According to sources, total number of pending cases stands at 60,60,075. A total of 1,000 judges might be required at minimum to dispose of all cases in 20 days, sources added. Despite today's SC order, it is still undecided how many judicial officers will come from outside the state to work here. As a result, it is still uncertain when their training starts. The last date for publication of final roll is Feb 28. Issuing an order on Tuesday, the SC said, "However, that being said, if the verification exercise undertaken in respect of ‘logical discrepancy/unmapped category' remains incomplete as on 28.02.2026, the ECI may publish the final list followed by supplements to the final list..."According to a senior EC official, the law allows publication of a supplementary list until the last day of nomination for the forthcoming polls. "But the question is when the EC will announce poll schedule. If it is a multi-phase election, then the deadline to publish the supplementary list of a phase which will go to poll is the last day of nomination for that respective phase. This kind of situation has never arisen before," the official said. However, the foremost challenge is scrutiny and disposal of close to 60 lakh cases that were flagged as disputed by micro observers and observers. The EC generated about 1.5 crore hearing notices under the ‘unmapped' or ‘logical discrepancies' categories. The EC deputed about 8,000 EROs/AEROs for conducting the hearing, uploading and scrutiny of documents, and final disposal. "Technically, all cases were disposed of by the EROs/AEROs. However, the micro observers and electoral roll observers found anomalies in about 60 lakh of a little less than 1.5 crore cases and sent them back to EROs/AEROs with the comment ‘need to review'.," another official said. The SC on Tuesday also directed that the documents notified by the EC on Oct 27 and the 2 documents mentioned in the earlier apex court order, Aadhaar Card as proof of identity and Madhyamik admit card, whether electronically updated or submitted physically with necessary proof of their submission on or before the cut-off date of Feb 14, will only be considered. "One of the bones of contention between the state and EC is the document. Many people submitted several documents, including 1 notified document. However, the ERO/AERO didn't upload the notified document, and so the person's form was rejected. Now, every document, whether updated online or submitted physically, will have to be considered for final disposal," the official added.