Kolkata, November 7, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Former Calcutta High Court judge Biswajit Basu resigned from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Tribunal on Saturday, becoming the fourth member to leave the panel constituted to hear appeals from voters excluded during the electoral roll revision in West Bengal.
Basu cited personal reasons for his decision and conveyed his resignation in a letter to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge. With his exit, the tribunal’s strength has fallen from 19 to 15 members.
His resignation comes days after former Justice Indrajit Chatterjee stepped down, citing the distance he had to travel to attend the tribunal’s office. Chatterjee had said that commuting 22 km daily was difficult. He had accepted the assignment expecting the tribunal’s work to be completed within two to three months, but the large number of pending cases indicated that the process would take considerably longer.
Former Justice Ranjit Kumar Bagh had also resigned, citing personal reasons without specifying them. Earlier, former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had stepped down, referring to family issues.
The tribunal was constituted on the Supreme Court’s directions and comprises 19 retired judges and magistrates. It was established to provide a mechanism for people whose names were omitted from the final electoral roll after the SIR exercise to seek inclusion.
The final electoral roll in West Bengal, excluding around 60 lakh cases referred for judicial adjudication, was published on February 28. The Election Commission had said supplementary lists would be issued as the adjudication process progressed.
Before the SIR notification was issued in November last year, West Bengal had 7,66,37,529 registered voters. The draft electoral roll published in December removed 58,20,899 names, while the final roll issued on February 28 recorded a total of 63,66,952 deletions.
The tribunal’s workload is linked to cases arising from these deletions. Supplementary rolls are expected to reflect the outcome of the judicial scrutiny, with eligible applicants whose claims are accepted having their names added to the electoral list.
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