Hearing of cases affected as judicial officers busy with SIR in West Bengal
The Hindu
Judicial work in West Bengal is disrupted as officers focus on electoral roll verification ahead of the February 28 deadline.
Judicial work across West Bengal’s district and metropolitan courts has been severely affected after hundreds of judicial officers were deployed to process nearly 50 lakh claims and objections under the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the February 28 deadline.
Except for urgent matters and bail hearings, trials and regular proceedings — including in special courts such as those dealing with Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) cases — have also been affected as judges undertake SIR-related verification work.
Committees have been formed at the Calcutta High Court and district levels to reassign urgent cases to alternative courts, but litigants and judicial officers remain uncertain about when normal functioning will resume. Now that it has fallen to the judiciary to examine claims and objections, judicial officers have reached out to administrative complexes for the verification work.
These judicial officers are provided log-in credentials to study the claims and objects.
A District Judge asked how judges could participate in SIR work unless they are made electoral returning officers. The judge said that even trials for cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have been kept in abeyance due to SIR work.
Several important cases where the trial process has been or likely to be affected include the South Calcutta Law College case (June 2025), the sexual assault of a medical student at Durgapur Medical College (October 2025) and the sexual assault and murder of a 13-year-old at Rampurhat at Birbhum (September 2025).
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