The Election Commission informs the SC that over 37 lakh Bengal SIR appeals are pending and over 1.02 lakh have been heard.

More than 37 lakh challenges against the removal or addition of names in Bengal’s electoral records under the Special Intensive Revision are still pending, the Election Commission informed the Supreme Court. According to the poll panel’s response affidavit, just roughly 1.02 lakh of the 38.20 lakh appeals submitted thus far have been resolved by the tribunals designated by the highest court. However, the document did not distinguish between appeals submitted by voters whose names were removed and those filed in opposition to names being added to the electoral records.

A panel made up of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana heard a plea on July 17 from Prasenjit Bose, the head of the Congress’s Bengal unit’s SIR committee. The bench had sought the poll panel’s response on the plea, which sought disclosure of Assembly constituency-wise data of claims and objections filed by the voters deleted during the SIR exercise. The poll panel, in its affidavit, said that 38,20,683 appeals had been filed against orders relating to the SIR of electoral rolls.

Of these, 1,02,231 appeals had been disposed of, leaving 37,18,452 pending, it added.

While 9.64 lakh applications for inclusion (Forms 6 and 6A) and over 99,000 applications for deletion (Form 7) were received during the claims and objections phase, only about 1.82 lakh additions were reflected in the final electoral roll published on February 28. Bose had stated in the petition that more than 58 lakh electors were excluded during the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise in Bengal.

The highest court ordered the Election Commission to provide information on the status and resolution of tribunal appeals against inclusion or exclusion from electoral rolls on August 25. The bench had asked the poll panel to describe the efforts being taken to expedite the process for resolving existing appeals and the number of additional tribunals needed, noting that they must be decided in a timely manner.

34.13 lakh Form 6 applications were filed between December 17, 2025, when the draft electoral roll was released, and August 7, 2026, according to EC statistics provided to the court. The required application to add a name to the electoral roll is Form 6. Applications from individuals looking to register for the first time and electors whose names were removed during the draft-stage modification are included in the figure.

On April 24, the Supreme Court requested that appellate tribunals grant out-of-turn hearings to those who file an urgent challenge to prevent their removal from the electoral rolls following the SIR.

Even PhD petitions from SIR-deleted individuals are still outstanding, despite the Supreme Court’s unequivocal ruling that a person’s citizenship status cannot be determined solely by removal from electoral rolls. According to the Bengal government, people whose names have been removed from the SIR will not receive government benefits. Gyanesh Kumar, the chief election commissioner, stated last month that complaints regarding names that were left off of electoral records during the SIR will be “110%” handled prior to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which are scheduled for 2029.