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Kolkata: In an unprecedented intervention, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 24) authorised the deployment of judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand to oversee the special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi expanded the judicial pool to include civil judges (senior and junior division) with at least three years of experience, alongside district and additional district judges.

This decision follows the “trust deficit” between the state government and the Election Commission (EC) observed by the highest court.

As per the EC’s submission to the court, there is a massive backlog of five million cases involving logical discrepancies that require urgent adjudication. To protect voting rights, the Supreme Court invoked Article 142, declaring that any names cleared after the February 28 deadline via supplementary lists will be legally deemed part of the original final electoral roll.

“We deem it appropriate to invoke our powers under Article 142 and declare that voters enlisted in such supplementary lists shall be deemed to be part of final list published on February 28, 2026,” the bench........

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