What did the order actually do?
On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court, in an exceptional situation, invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution and decided to deploy judicial officers in the State of West Bengal (โStateโ) to adjudicate and revisit cases and documents submitted under the category of โlogical discrepanciesโ and โunmapped casesโ for inclusion or exclusion of names from the electoral roll (โrollโ). This course of action was adopted when the second phase of the SIR, being undertaken across 12 States/Union Territories, was nearing completion.
The Court intervened after the Election Commission of India (โECIโ) submitted before the court that, despite repeated requests, the State had not provided Group โAโ officers of the rank of SDO/SDM to carry out the quasi-judicial functions of Electoral Registration Officers (โEROsโ). According to the ECI, instead of such officers, personnel at clerical levels and from Group โBโ and โCโ cadres were deployed. Consequently, making it untenable to entrust them with the adjudication of cases involving scrutiny of documents in a number of cases falling under the logical discrepancy and unmapped catego
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