The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday (Feb 4) a clutch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee indicating that she will personally appear before the apex court during the proceedings.
As per the cause list, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi will hear three petitions filed by Mostari Banu and Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen. In addition, Banerjee herself has filed a separate petition on the issue, which is also listed for consideration.
Banerjee, who holds a law degree, has opted to personally attend the hearing and make submissions before the court, a move seen by political observers as an extension of her increasingly combative posture against the Election Commission rather than a routine legal challenge.
The chief minister approached the Supreme Court on January 28, questioning both the legality and the manner of implementation of the SIR exercise in the poll-bound state. In her plea, she has alleged political bias and an “authoritarian” approach by the Election Commission, accusations that the poll body has firmly denied.
Notably, Banerjee has not limited her objections to legal forums alone. In recent weeks, she has taken the fight directly to the Election Commission, publicly attacking its officials, staging a dramatic walkout from a meeting in Delhi, and repeatedly alleging that the SIR is being misused to target Trinamool Congress-held constituencies.
In a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar last Saturday (Jan 31), Banerjee claimed that the SIR process had caused “immense inconvenience and agony” to the people of West Bengal and went so far as to allege that the exercise had led to 140 deaths across the state, a claim that has raised eyebrows and drawn criticism for being unsubstantiated.
Her remarks and conduct have prompted accusations from the opposition that the chief minister is deliberately creating chaos around a constitutional process to build a political narrative ahead of the Assembly elections, while attempting to pressure an independent constitutional authority.
Earlier, on January 19, the Supreme Court had already intervened in the matter, issuing a series of directions to ensure that the SIR process remained transparent and did not inconvenience genuine voters. The court directed the Election Commission to publicly display the names of voters flagged for “logical discrepancies” at gram panchayat bhavans and block offices, which were also designated as centres for submitting documents and objections.
The apex court also took note of the fact that around 1.25 crore voters in West Bengal had been listed under “logical discrepancies,” which include mismatches in parental names and cases where the age gap between a voter and their parent is less than 15 years or more than 50 years. It instructed that adequate manpower and facilities be deployed and asked the West Bengal government to extend full cooperation to election authorities.
Despite these directions, the state government under Banerjee has continued to publicly question the Election Commission’s intent, with repeated allegations and confrontational messaging from the chief minister and her party leaders.
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the matter, the case has come to symbolise yet another flashpoint in Mamata Banerjee’s pattern of confrontations with constitutional institutions, raising larger questions about governance, cooperation, and respect for institutional processes in a politically charged election year.
