West Bengal electoral roll appeals: 37 lakh cases pending before tribunals

The Election Commission of India has informed the Supreme Court that over 97% of appeals filed against the revised West Bengal electoral rolls remain pending. According to an affidavit filed on September 16, a total of 3,820,683 appeals were submitted to the Appellate Tribunals, but only 102,231—approximately 2.68%—have been disposed of. This leaves 3,718,452 appeals awaiting a decision.

The Commission has not yet provided the specific breakdown requested by the Court regarding the nature of these appeals. Specifically, it has not bifurcated the data to show how many appeals were filed against the exclusion of names from the rolls versus how many were filed against the inclusion of names.

Petitioners previously informed the Court, citing Right to Information data, that more than 80% of the appeals were filed by third parties challenging the inclusion of names in the voters’ list, while appeals from excluded voters accounted for roughly 20%.