The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Election Commission on a petition seeking directions to bring the West Bengal Police under the deputation of the poll panel during the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in the state, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also issued a notice to the West Bengal government in the matter.

The petition, filed by an organisation named Sanatani Sangsad, sought a direction from the court to deploy central armed forces in West Bengal till the voter list revision exercise is completed, Live Law reported.

The exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including in West Bengal. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 14.

On Tuesday, the petitioner told the court that there was a need for the central forces to be deployed in the state because there had been several incidents of violence against booth-level officers involved in the exercise, Live Law reported.

“The BLOs should be given protection,” the counsel representing the petitioner was quoted as saying.

Bagchi said that apart from one first information report filed in an alleged instance of violence, the petition listed no other incident.

“The other instances mentioned are historical references,” Bagchi was quoted as saying. “The materials are presumptive.”

Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the Election Commission, said that the police are controlled by the state government, which is “supposed to cooperate with us and give us protection”.

“If the state government refuses to do so, then we have no option other than taking the local police under deputation,” Live Law quoted him as saying. “Unless we take on deputation...if we do not trust the local police, we have to take central forces.”

The counsel representing the poll panel added that a letter had been written to the state government, as there had been instances of booth-level officers being obstructed.

Bagchi said that the petitioner would have to make out a prima facie case that the law and order situation in West Bengal was unique, Bar and Bench reported.

On November 28, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bengal chief Samik Bhattacharya alleged that the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress had captured the revision process by taking control of the booth-level officers.

Bhattacharya claimed that the process in Bengal was being held under an atmosphere of “threat and intimidation”. Booth-level officers were being forced to take instructions from the Trinamool Congress, he alleged.

He also alleged that the police were not acting on complaints filed by the booth-level officers about being threatened.

In a letter submitted to the State Election Commission on December 1, BJP leaders claimed that the chief electoral officer’s office in Kolkata was not safe and alleged that the police were acting in a partisan manner.

Kerala

The bench of Kant and Bagchi on Tuesday also refused to extend the deadline for the submission of enumeration forms in Kerala, Onmanorama reported. The court will decide on the extension on December 18, which is the deadline.

The court was hearing petitions filed by the Kerala government and political parties seeking an extension of the deadline, citing the ongoing local body elections.

Assam

The court also issued a notice to the Election Commission on a writ petition challenging the poll panel’s decision to conduct a “special revision” of the electoral roll in Assam, not a special intensive revision, Live Law reported.

The special revision is similar to the usual updates to the electoral roll.

The petitioner said that Assam had been “singled out” despite the state allegedly having a large population of undocumented immigrants.

The bench will hear the matter next on December 16.

Assam and West Bengal are among the states expected to head for Assembly elections in the first half of 2026.

Citizenship applicants

The court also asked how persons who have applied for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act can be provisionally included in the electoral roll, Live Law reported.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by a non-governmental organisation seeking directions that persons who are eligible for Indian citizenship under the 2019 amendment should be included in the voter list in West Bengal, Live Law reported.

The amendment is aimed to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014.

It was passed by Parliament in December 2019. The Union government notified the rules under the Act in March 2024.

The law, widely criticised for discriminating against Muslims, had sparked massive protests across the country in 2019 and 2020.

Indian Muslims fear that the law could be used, along with the nationwide National Register of Citizens, to harass and disenfranchise them. The National Register of Citizens is a proposed exercise to identify undocumented immigrants.

On Tuesday, Advocate Karuna Nundy, representing the petitioner, argued that citizenship applications of several persons had not been processed. Nundy was quoted as saying that the citizenship rights accrue from the date of the application.

As their applications are awaiting processing, the voter list revision process will “knock them out”, Live Law quoted her as having submitted.

Bagchi responded: “First you acquire your citizenship, then the entry into the electoral rolls comes.”

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