The Supreme Court allowed a petitioner to approach the Calcutta High Court over allegations that names excluded from West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls were being removed from ration lists. The Bench permitted withdrawal of the petition and granted liberty for further legal action.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court granted liberty to a petitioner to move the Calcutta High Court. The petition had alleged that the names of people who were excluded from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal were being deleted from the ration list.
The petitioner’s counsel brought the matter before a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi.
The counsel requested permission to withdraw the petition, seeking liberty to approach the high court. The bench disposed of the petition accordingly and granted the petitioner the requested liberty.
Earlier, when the matter was mentioned on Tuesday for urgent listing, the top court indicated that the petitioner should first approach the high court.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the names excluded in the SIR were being targeted for removal from the ration list, and that several beneficiaries faced the risk of being excluded.
“Please take it to the high court,” the bench told the petitioner’s counsel on Tuesday.
The issue traces back to June 4, when the Food and Supplies Department of West Bengal ordered a statewide verification exercise to identify ineligible beneficiaries from the Public Distribution System (PDS), tying the exercise to the outcome of the SIR of electoral rolls.
ALSO READ: [Ration Distribution Scam] SC Rejects West Bengal’s Plea Against CBI Investigation
As per an official order, the verification would apply to ration card holders whose names were either deleted or found ineligible during the electoral roll revision process, and it was to be completed by June 15. The order stated that the department decided to proceed with “verification and deletion of those PDS beneficiaries who have been found ineligible” after the completion of the SIR and the publication of the final electoral rolls by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal.
Officials noted that the categories under scrutiny include ASDD electors (absentee, shifted, dead or duplicate), persons whose applications were rejected during the SIR process, those deleted after adjudication, and electors identified as ASDD during the distribution of voter information slips ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
The department, however, clarified that beneficiaries who have filed appeals before the SIR tribunal or submitted applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would remain active in the ration card database until their appeals or applications are disposed of.