Today, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appeared before the Supreme Court as a “common citizen” to challenge the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of voter lists, calling it unfair and harmful to ordinary people in Bengal.

Wearing a black coat over her white saree, Banerjee waited for over two hours before addressing a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant. She accused the Election Commission (EC) of causing “unprecedented hardship” and said her repeated letters to the poll body had gone unanswered. Though she asked for five minutes, the Chief Justice allowed her 15 minutes to argue her case.

Banerjee urged the court to direct the EC to use the 2005 voter data for the upcoming elections instead of the ongoing 2026 SIR process. She claimed lakhs of genuine voters had been wrongly removed from the rolls and alleged that Bengal was being selectively targeted. Questioning the speed of the exercise, she asked why a process that usually takes two years was being completed in just three months.

She also opposed the deployment of 8,300 micro observers, calling them politically biased, and highlighted the risk of exclusion faced by around 63 lakh voters due to “logical discrepancies” such as spelling errors, surname changes after marriage, or address changes due to migration.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Banerjee, said over 1.36 crore people flagged for discrepancies had not been heard, with only a few days left before the final list is published.

The Election Commission said micro observers were appointed because the state did not provide enough officers for the exercise.

Calling the concerns raised “genuine,” the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission and sought its response by Monday. The court also asked the EC to act sensibly in cases involving minor spelling mistakes and said micro observers could be withdrawn if the state made officers available.