Mamata likely to become 1st sitting CM to argue her case in Supreme Court

WEst Bengal chief government government minister Mamata Banerjee may suit the number one posing chief minister to personally argue her own case before the Supreme Court, if permitted, when her petition challenging the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll comes up for hearing on Wednesday.Also read: Budget 2026 to benefit common man, US deal a ‘big relief’ to Indian exporters, says Sitharaman | ExclusiveHer petition, which will be heard amid a batch of challenges already filed by her Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders against the SIR process, seeks the complete dismantling of the revision exercise in West Bengal and urges that the 2026 assembly elections be conducted strictly based on the existing 2025 voter list.The move significantly escalates Banerjee’s confrontation with the poll panel, as she maintains the SIR, initiated ahead of the assembly elections, of risking large-scale disenfranchisement under the guise of verification.Also read: India-US trade deal protects dairy, key agriculture products; no duty for $40 billion exportsIn her plea, Banerjee, a trained advocate, has sought the quashing of all SIR-related orders issued by the ECI on June 24, 2025, and October 27, 2025, along with all connected directives. She has also sought a writ of mandamus directing the ECI to conduct the upcoming assembly elections using the unaltered 2025 electoral roll, contending that the SIR’s reliance on a 2002 baseline and its “onerous” verification framework threatens the voting rights of genuine electors.The petition raises particular concern over cases flagged for so-called “logical discrepancies”, such as minor spelling variations or name mismatches. Banerjee has urged the court to bar hearings in such cases and instead direct election authorities to carry out suo motu corrections using available records. She has sought a direction that all such cases be transparently uploaded on the websites of chief electoral officers (CEOs) and district electoral officers (DEOs).Also read: US shoots down Iranian drone, Tehran demands to shift talks venue | Top pointsAmong other reliefs, the chief minister has asked the court to order the withdrawal of all prior hearing notices, restrain the deletion of voters mapped to the 2002 rolls who have submitted documents, and mandate that Aadhaar be accepted as valid proof of identity without insistence on additional documents.Her plea also calls for the online publication of Form 7 recipients to prevent bulk deletions, the empowerment of local electoral registration officers (EROs) to decide inter-state migration cases after five days, and the removal of micro-observers from the verification process—or at the very least, a bar on their participation in hearings and field verifications. She has sought directions to ensure that state-issued documents are honoured, field inquiries are conducted strictly in accordance with the ECI’s June 24 guidelines, and complainants filing Form 7 objections are required to appear in person.Banerjee’s petition comes days after the Supreme Court’s recent intervention to ease what it described as the “stress and strain” faced by ordinary voters during the SIR exercise in West Bengal.Last month, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with justices Dipankar Datta and Joymalya Bagchi, issued a slew of binding directions to the ECI to make the revision process more transparent, accessible, and voter-friendly, while reiterating that the core objective of the exercise was to ensure that no eligible voter was excluded.“See the strain and stress going on for ordinary people. Over one crore people have been issued notices…we are going to pass some orders,” the bench observed on January 12, underscoring that while corrections to electoral rolls were permissible, they could not come at the cost of fairness, due process, and voter confidence.Also read: Is ChatGPT down? Here's what outage data showsThe court directed that voters flagged for discrepancies must receive proper intimation, adequate assistance, and a meaningful opportunity to substantiate their credentials. It also expanded hearing venues to panchayats and block offices, mandated written receipts for submissions, and ordered the ECI to publish lists of voters issued notices for “logical discrepancies” at local administrative offices to ensure transparency.Noting that nearly 12.5 million notices had been issued, covering issues ranging from spelling variations and age-gap anomalies to discrepancies in parental details, the bench had allowed voters to be assisted by a representative, including relatives or political party booth-level agents, during the submission of documents and hearings.To address concerns over law and order, the court placed responsibility squarely on the state administration, directing district collectors and police superintendents to deploy adequate personnel and holding the West Bengal police chief personally accountable for ensuring that the process is completed smoothly and without violence.The court recorded the seven categories of “logical discrepancies” identified under the SIR, including voters missing from the 2002 rolls, age gaps below prescribed thresholds with parents or grandparents, gender mismatches, and cases involving unusually large family mappings.Banerjee’s petition, which follows her letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, portrays the SIR as an instance of bureaucratic overreach that disproportionately targets marginalised voters and threatens democratic participation in the poll-bound state.While several TMC leaders have approached the Supreme Court against the SIR, Banerjee’s personal intervention, and her stated willingness to argue the case herself, add a political edge to a dispute that has rapidly become one of the most consequential election-law battles ahead of the 2026 West Bengal assembly polls.On January 29, the Supreme Court reserved orders on petitions challenging the validity of the SIR conducted in Bihar, the first state which went to polls in November last year after conclusion of the SIR exercise.