4 min readKolkataApr 18, 2026 05:51 AM IST
For 27-year-old Shabnam Mondal, a resident of Bardhaman’s Kalna, the struggle to reclaim her voting rights has become a personal ordeal fraught with responsibility, distance and uncertainty. She left her five-year-old child back at home with grandparents to undertake a six-hour journey to the Joka tribunal on Friday, only to find herself stranded outside the SPM-NIWAS entrance, unable to even step inside.
“I have submitted everything, Voter ID, Passport, PAN card, birth and school certificates, yet my name was deleted from the voter rolls,” Mondal said.
Despite her grandfather’s name being there on the 2002 electoral rolls, Mondal alleged that her name was removed simply because too many relatives (more than seven) cited the same person as relation.
“My passport has an Indore address because we moved for work. But does that mean I lose my roots? Do they expect a person born in Kolkata to never move until they die?” she said.
Despite a Supreme Court directive meant to reinstate the voting rights of lakhs of voters deleted from the rolls under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal, the ground reality at the Appellate Tribunal in Joka remains one of logistical and administrative hurdles. Many petitioners and lawyers, some of whom travelled long distances, alleged that heavy security measures prevented them from entering the premises.
In a recent order, the Supreme Court invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, allowing voters cleared by Appellate Tribunals to vote in the upcoming Assembly elections, provided their appeals are decided before April 21 and 27, respectively, for the first and second phases.
However, with no opportunity to present their cases on Friday, the tension among the petitioners remained palpable as the deadlines drew near.
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According to many petitioners, while 19 Appellate Tribunals are technically functional, access remains the primary barrier.
While sources claim 16 lakh appeals have been filed out of 27 lakh deleted voters, there is no official confirmation yet. The Supreme Court has mandated that the tribunals focus on “deleted” voters, yet the current pool of 34 lakh appeals includes a substantial number of “objections” against the inclusion of certain individuals.
“Access to justice is being denied,” Arindam Das, a Calcutta High Court advocate with 20 years of experience said.
“Why isn’t there a tribunal in every district? Someone coming from Jalpaiguri or Cooch Behar cannot practically reach Joka. There is no official or any representative who we can talk to. We kept insisting but we were not allowed inside. Even if they suggest online hearings, how can a poor, working-class person navigate that without internet or technical literacy,” Das said outside the tribunal.
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A committee comprising three former judges, Justice TS Sivagnanam, Justice Pradipta Ray, and Justice Pranab Kumar Deb have already formulated the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for these hearings. Despite the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) declaring the tribunals “fully functional” as of April 13, the heavy deployment of CAPF at the entrance has restricted even legal professionals from communicating with the presiding judges.
Raju Ghosh, a lead petitioner representing 106 applicants, said that this is “not a political issue but a civil one”.
“We are ancestral residents of the land, ‘Ghotis’. My family’s names were removed simply due to spelling errors. We are here to ensure our voices are heard before the window closes. As the April 21 cutoff for the first phase looms, the tribunal faces the monumental task of adjudicating lakhs of cases,” Ghosh said.
