West Bengal: SC allows petitioner to approach Calcutta HC with plea over exclusion from ration list

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted liberty to a petitioner to approach the Calcutta High Court with his plea which alleged that names of people excluded from the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal were being deleted from the ration list.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner mentioned the matter before a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi.

The counsel urged the bench to be allowed to withdraw the petition with the liberty to move the high court. The bench, which disposed of the plea, granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the high court.


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When the matter was mentioned on Tuesday for urgent listing, the top court said that the petitioner should approach the high court.

The petitioner's counsel contended that names of those excluded in the SIR were sought to be dropped from the ration list and several beneficiaries were in danger of being excluded.

"Please take it to the high court," the bench told the petitioner's counsel on Tuesday.

On June 4, West Bengal's Food and Supplies Department ordered a statewide verification exercise to identify and delete ineligible beneficiaries from the Public Distribution System (PDS), linking the process to the outcome of the SIR of electoral rolls.

According to an official order, the exercise would cover ration card holders whose names were deleted or found ineligible during the electoral roll revision process and it was scheduled to be completed by June 15.

The order said the department decided to undertake "verification and deletion of those PDS beneficiaries who have been found ineligible" following the completion of the SIR and publication of the final electoral rolls by the office of the chief electoral officer, West Bengal.

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Officials said the categories under scrutiny include persons marked as absentee, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) electors, individuals whose applications were rejected during the SIR process, those deleted after adjudication and electors identified as ASDD during the distribution of voter information slips ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.

However, the department clarified that beneficiaries who have filed appeals before the SIR tribunal or have submitted applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would continue to remain active in the ration card database until the disposal of their appeals or applications.