Considerations develop that voters may very well be faraway from the ultimate electoral roll in the course of the election interval Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) in West BengalTMC MP Dora Sen informed the Supreme Courtroom that micro-observers appointed by the Election Fee are suspected of overriding the choices of the Election Registrar Officer (ERO), the statutory authority to register and take away voters.
Mr. Sen, who can also be the petitioner within the Supreme Courtroom problem to the SIR, additionally filed allegations in two purposes filed on February 16 and February 18 that he logged into the ECINET portal from a location aside from the one the place the official was representing him and that paperwork uploaded to the system grew to become “smeared” after they had been submitted.
The ultimate electoral roll for West Bengal is anticipated to be launched on February 28. The EC didn’t reply to requests from The Indian Specific for touch upon Sen’s allegations.
The EC had introduced SIR for 9 states and three Union Territories on October 27 final 12 months, however for the primary time, it had deployed micro-observers solely in West Bengal. On February 4, whereas defending its resolution to nominate 8,100 micro-observers who’re central authorities staff, the EC informed the Supreme Courtroom that their function is to help ERO and Assistant ERO (AERO). The EC mentioned: “It’s flawed to recommend that statutory powers are vested in microobservers.”
In his February 16 software, Mr. Sen submitted that the micro-observer continues to train its energy to assessment ERO choices in violation of the Supreme Courtroom’s February 9 order stating that micro-observers solely help prescribed statutory powers.
“Within the absence of such applicable instructions, the order dated February 9, 2026 handed by this courtroom will probably be null and void, creating severe prejudice to dozens of electors who’re eligible to vote however are more likely to be faraway from the ultimate electoral roll,” Sen’s software states.
She claimed that micro-observers, who had been officers from Teams B and C, had been utilizing the ECINET portal to assessment choices taken by ERO and EROs from Teams A and B classes. He cited 13 circumstances the place electors licensed by statutory authorities had been later marked for scrutiny by observers.
“All these circumstances concern varied electors, most of whom have already been mapped to the earlier SIR listing and have submitted enumeration kinds, however are pressured to undergo the difficulty of reconciling their paperwork, seem in public hearings on the pretext of frivolous logical contradictions, and are finally permitted by election authorities, whose choices are seemingly ignored by micro-observers,” the applying states.
Sen additional claimed that over 700,000 electors had been “vetted” by micro-observers between February 9 and February 11 alone.
“These measures have a direct affect on electors who’ve submitted paperwork by the statutory course of and secured approval from the competent statutory authorities, however such choices can solely be reopened or jeopardized by extra-statutory assessment,” she mentioned.
Petitioners additionally raised considerations relating to the ECINET portal utilized by ERO, ERO, and Microobserver to course of kinds. She claims that since February 14, the choice for ERO and Eros to add paperwork has been faraway from the interface, and has connected an alleged screenshot.
February 14 was the final day of hearings, however the Supreme Courtroom granted ERO and Eros a one-week extension till February 21 to assessment the paperwork.
Mr. Sen additionally submitted screenshots during which voters had been allegedly marked for examination by micro-observers for causes resembling “no paperwork of voters matching father’s identify had been discovered” although extracts from the 2002 electoral roll had been submitted with related particulars.
In a separate software filed on February 18, Sen alleged that login credentials issued to 30 particular function observers appointed by the EC had been getting used from areas aside from their mandated areas. For instance, she claimed that one such login was used from the Tea Board Workplace in Kolkata.
She additional claimed that on February 18, electors who had been saved “on standby for the ultimate vote” by ERO and Eros on the ECINET portal had been “pushed again” for assessment by observers.
“At present, greater than 500,000 parked electors are being pushed for scrutiny, together with circumstances of logical inconsistency. The variety of parked electors being pushed for vetting by RO/MOs (function observers/micro-observers) is growing daily,” the applying mentioned.
In response to Sen, additional amendments to the ECINET portal on February 18, after assessment by observers, left ERO and ERO with solely two choices – both agree and mark the elector as “ineligible” or disagree. If ERO didn’t agree, there was no choice to mark the elector for inclusion within the last roll.
She additionally claimed that there have been “severe technical anomalies” within the portal, saying that paperwork and enumeration kinds that had been beforehand uploaded by Sales space Stage Officers (BLOs), Eros, and EROs and had been clearly seen on the time have since grow to be blurred, inaccessible, or nearly invisible. Some electors had been then allegedly marked for vetting by observers as a result of they’d no seen documentation.
The TMC MP’s fees come at a time when West Bengal’s SIR is nearing its finish with the discharge of the ultimate listing on February 28. With parliamentary elections scheduled to be introduced quickly, if an unwarranted deletion happens now, voters may very well be disenfranchised with out time to right it.
