Bengal SIR progress: 47 lakh of 60 lakh adjudicated cases disposed of, Supreme Court informed

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi took note of the update during the hearing on the contentious voter revision exercise on Wednesday.

CJI Kant said the bench was "happy" and "very optimistic" about the progress of the process.

The court was informed that around 1.75–2 lakh adjudicated cases are being processed daily.

Meanwhile, the top court modified its earlier order that had barred Appellate Tribunals from accepting fresh documents not submitted before adjudicating officers.

In its revised direction, the court said Appellate Tribunals may consider new documents only after verifying their genuineness.

"The Appellate Tribunal will not entertain fresh documents without verifying the genuineness of such documents," the court said as quoted by Live Law.

Earlier, in an extraordinary move, the Supreme Court had assigned judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand to adjudicate claims and objections related to the SIR process.

The intervention came amid a prolonged standoff between the Election Commission of India and the state government, which had stalled the voter roll revision exercise.

The court noted that judicial officers would examine discrepancies flagged during the process, as the exercise had reached an impasse.

The West Bengal Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29.

Judicial officers are now tasked with completing the SIR process and enabling Appellate Tribunals to hear appeals against deletions ahead of the first phase of polling.