ECI directs officials to speed up SIR hearings in West Bengal

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India, during its full bench review meeting of SIR in West Bengal, on Friday instructed that all hearings and uploading of documents should be "preferably" completed within the next seven days. The Supreme Court had given a ten-day window for document submission.

West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal told ET that he expects that hearings will be completed in the next seven days.

During the meeting, the ECI directed that all pending notices should be generated by Saturday 5pm. Out of the one crore hearings completed till date, around 25 lakh documents have been uploaded, which is about 25%.


Till date, around 50,000 notices are yet to be generated.

The ECI has directed that the notices, which are yet to be served, should be served positively by 5pm of February 1 and proof of service should be uploaded by BLOs. Till date, around 12-15 lakh notices are yet to be served. "For hearings completed earlier, the attendance should be uploaded and documents collected from them uploaded within February 2, 2026, positively," the ECI said.

The DEOs will ensure that "AEROS or EROs dispose of all the cases as per norms without any deviation," the ECI said.