The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday directed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal must continue without any obstruction, while granting an additional week for scrutiny of voter documents.

A Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, made it clear that the Court would step in only to address procedural issues if required. It underlined that any attempt to disrupt the SIR process would not be tolerated.

The Court also directed the state government to submit, by 5 pm on Wednesday, the names of 8,505 Group B officers to the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). From this pool, the Election Commission of India will appoint micro-observers to assist EROs and Assistant EROs in rectifying discrepancies in the electoral database.

State Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal informed the Court that the final electoral roll could not be published before February 21 and is now scheduled for release on February 28. According to the CEO’s office, hearings have been completed for around 13.9 million voters, while documents relating to 10.6 million voters have already been uploaded. The remaining work, officials said, is being expedited to meet the revised timeline.