The Supreme Court of India on Friday praised the unprecedented voter participation in the opening phase of the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026, expressing satisfaction over the largely peaceful polling process.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, observed that the high voter participation reflects the strength of India's democracy.
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“As a citizen of India, I was very happy to see the voting percentage. When people exercise the right to vote, this strengthens democratic set up,” CJI Kant remarked.
Justice Bagchi added that the polling process remained largely incident-free, stating, “There have been no incidents of violence also.”
According to the Election Commission of India, the first phase recorded a historic 91.78% turnout — the highest since Independence, surpassing the previous record of 84.72% in 2011.
The observations came during hearings on petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The top court had earlier refused to halt the revision process and instead directed the deployment of judicial officers and retired judges to hear claims related to voter deletions.
Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay informed the Bench that nearly 92% of voters participated, including migrant labourers who returned to cast their ballots.
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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also termed the turnout “historical,” while noting that polling was largely peaceful barring a few incidents.
However, concerns were raised over the slow pace of appeals linked to voter list exclusions.
Bandyopadhyay told the court that only 136 appeals had been disposed of out of nearly 27 lakh filed, calling the situation “very very sad.”
In response, the Bench allowed parties to approach the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice for intervention, reiterating that tribunals should prioritise urgent cases involving excluded voters.
Separately, the court granted additional time to the National Investigation Agency to file its chargesheet in a case related to the alleged gherao of judicial officers handling voter claims.
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