15 lakh Bengal voters in limbo due to missing e-signatures

KOLKATA: Judicial officers have disposed of 37 lakh “under-adjudication” voter cases in Bengal, but only 22 lakh names appear across two supplementary electoral rolls, leaving about 15 lakh cases unaccounted for due to missing e-signatures.

EC published a third list late Saturday, but there was no clarity on the number of names listed. An EC official said supplementary lists would be published every day going forward.





EC officials said 60 lakh voters were initially marked for scrutiny after a special intensive revision (SIR) of rolls, with over 700 judicial officers assigned to review them. By March 23 evening, around 29 lakh cases had been cleared. Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal said names carrying e-signatures till 5pm would be published in the first supplementary list. The list released around midnight carried about 10 lakh names.

The gap persisted in the second list. Officials said 37 lakh cases had been disposed of by Friday evening, suggesting the remaining 27 lakh should feature in the next publication. However, the list showed only 12 lakh names. “We received 12 lakh cases with e-signatures and published accordingly,” a senior EC official said Saturday, offering no explanation for absence of e-signs on the remaining 15 lakh cleared cases.

An EC source said digital signature functionality was introduced late into the adjudication software, after several officers had already disposed of cases in assigned segments. Those cases will be routed back to the officers.
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