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Eleven former High Court judges flagged serious flaws in the ECI’s appeal portal, including missing facilities to serve notices, hold virtual hearings, obtain additional documents and download orders
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The 19 West Bengal tribunals cleared only 1.06 lakh appeals in four months, with 93 per cent resulting in names being restored; the ECI reported 38 lakh pending appeals
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Earlier warnings went unheeded, according to a tribunal judge, while questions remain over whether the August meeting’s concerns reached the Supreme Court and ECI, and what corrective action followed
Barely two weeks after reporting that two Election Commissioners had objected in writing 14 times over 10 months to decisions and the functioning of the Election Commission, The Indian Express has published another investigation.
The report, by Damini Nath and Atri Mitra, says 11 former high court judges had raised concerns about the appeal portal presented to them. Published on Tuesday, the report cites minutes of a meeting attended by the 11 judges in August 2026.
It is unclear, however, whether the Calcutta High Court forwarded the minutes to the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India, and, if so, what response the ECI gave and what corrective steps it took.
The 19 appellate tribunals were set up in West Bengal following the Supreme Court’s orders to hear appeals against decisions of judicial officers on the eligibility of voters during the SIR exercise. The ECI told the Supreme Court in September 2026 that 38.31 lakh appeals had been filed—22.21 lakh seeking restoration of deleted names and 16.10 lakh seeking deletion of names. Of these, only 1.26 lakh had been disposed of by 10 September, leaving more than 37 lakh appeals pending.
