Kolkata: Election Commission on Tuesday pushed back the publication of Bengal’s final voters’ list to Feb 28, extending the state’s SIR schedule by 14 days. Within 24 hours, two Senior Deputy Election Commissioners — Gyanesh Bharti and Maneesh Garg — are expected to visit Bengal on March 1 to review poll preparations, EC sources said.On Tuesday, the Commission announced that it has decided to revise the SIR timetable in Bengal in compliance with the Supreme Court’s Feb 9 order. Hearings will now be conducted till Feb 14 while the last date for scrutinising uploaded documents and disposing of cases will be Feb 21, it said in a written communication to Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal. This is the second time that the state’s SIR roster is being extended. Earlier, on Nov 30, the EC had pushed back the schedule by a week and the final publication of electoral from Feb 7 to Feb 14 citing delay in collection of enumeration forms and uploading of data on the BLO app.In its order on Monday, the Supreme Court had said, “Since the process of scrutinising the documents submitted by the affected persons in response to notices served on them is likely to take longer than anticipated, and as suggested on behalf of some of the petitioners, we direct that at least one week beyond 14.02.2026 be granted to the EROs/AEROs to complete the scrutiny of the documents and take an appropriate decision.” Following the SC order, Agarwal had indicated that the final electoral roll is unlikely to be published before Feb 28.The apex court in its order said, “The affected persons to whom notices have been served shall be entitled to rely on all or any of the documents referred to by the ECI in the SIR notice, and all such documents, including those referred to in our order dated 19.01.2026, shall be considered by the EROs when passing orders on the objections received in response to the notices served.”It added, “EROs shall be duty-bound to consider the objections, if any, received from the persons as per the statutory scheme, whether or not such persons come forwardfor a personal hearing. It goes without saying that the genuineness of the documents issued by the competent authority, filed along with these objections, can be scrutinised/verified in the same manner as the documents to be submitted by the affected persons,” it added.The EC on Tuesday directed the DEOs and DMs to dispose of the enumeration forms in conformity with the order of the Supreme Court.“EROs/ AEROs should be directed to strictly comply with the above timelines and directions of the Hon’ble SC while disposing off notice, claims and objections pertaining to SIR 2026. Deviations, if any, will be viewed very seriously and adverse inference shall be drawn against the concerned EROs/AEROs,” the EC said.
