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India’s ‘newest voters’ caught in SIR adjudication trap in West Bengal

March 25, 2026 5 min read Polity & Governance Social Issues GS2 (Polity & Governance Elections) GS1 (Social Issues)
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What Happened

  • Thousands of former Bangladesh enclave residents in Cooch Behar, West Bengal — who received Indian citizenship after the 2015 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) — have been placed "under adjudication" in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ordered by the Election Commission of India.
  • Critics and affected residents allege the adjudication has been conducted along communal lines, with a disproportionate number of Muslim names placed under scrutiny even though all former enclave residents (regardless of religion) received citizenship in 2015.
  • The SIR, ordered by the ECI for West Bengal ahead of assembly elections, requires all voters to verify their identity. Those marked "under adjudication" cannot vote until their status is resolved.
  • The Supreme Court, in a March 10 directive, set up appellate tribunals to resolve the status of the approximately 60 lakh voters marked "under adjudication" across West Bengal.
  • Legal experts question whether the Election Commission — whose mandate is to prepare and revise electoral rolls — has the power to adjudicate citizenship, which is a statutory function under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Static Topic Bridges

India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), 2015 and the Enclave Exchange

The India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement was the culmination of decades of negotiations to resolve the anomaly of 162 enclaves — small pockets of one country's territory geographically located inside the other. The LBA was signed in 1974 (Indira-Mujib Pact) but ratified and implemented in 2015 after the 100th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2015. On July 31, 2015, India transferred 111 Indian enclaves to Bangladesh and received 51 Bangladeshi enclaves — with residents given the choice of citizenship.

  • 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (covering 7,110 acres) merged with India; 111 Indian enclaves (17,160 acres) became part of Bangladesh.
  • All 16,000 residents of the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves who opted to remain became Indian citizens automatically.
  • Around 950 Indians from Bangladeshi enclaves chose to return to India.
  • The 100th Constitutional Amendment (2015) amended the First Schedule to reflect the exchange of territories.
  • Former enclave residents were issued voter IDs, Aadhaar cards, and ration cards as Indian citizens.

Connection to this news: The former enclave residents are legally unimpeachable Indian citizens under the 100th Constitutional Amendment and the Citizenship Act. Their placement "under adjudication" in the SIR — a decade after their documented enfranchisement — represents an administrative overreach that the Supreme Court has now sought to address through appellate tribunals.

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and the Election Commission's Constitutional Role

The Election Commission of India (ECI) derives its power to prepare, maintain, and periodically revise electoral rolls from Articles 324 and 325 of the Constitution. The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (Section 21) authorises the ECI to conduct intensive revision of rolls. An SIR involves house-to-house verification of voter eligibility. The key constitutional constraint is that the ECI can verify eligibility for inclusion in the roll (citizenship, age, residence) but cannot adjudicate disputed citizenship — that power vests with the government under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

  • Article 324: ECI has superintendence, direction, and control over elections; this includes preparation of electoral rolls.
  • Article 325: No person shall be ineligible for inclusion in the electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste, or sex.
  • The Representation of the People Act, 1950 governs electoral roll preparation.
  • Citizenship Act, 1955, Section 5: citizenship by registration; Section 6: citizenship by naturalisation.
  • The SIR process places persons "under adjudication" if their documents are deemed insufficient by local election officers — a quasi-judicial function that critics say exceeds ECI's mandate.

Connection to this news: The controversy highlights a structural ambiguity: the ECI has power to verify citizenship as a prerequisite for voter registration, but the line between verification and adjudication — especially for communities with post-2015 documentation — is contested, and the Supreme Court's intervention signals that the process needs clearer safeguards.

Citizenship and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) — NE India Precedent

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, updated under Supreme Court supervision between 2015 and 2019, provides a relevant precedent and cautionary tale. The Assam NRC excluded 19 lakh residents (many of them Bengali Hindus as well as Muslims) from the final list, raising questions about the adequacy of documents held by genuine citizens — particularly those from pre-partition or post-partition migration periods.

  • Assam NRC (1951 base): updated under Supreme Court supervision; final list published August 31, 2019 — 19.06 lakh excluded.
  • The NRC process accepted documents including land records, educational certificates, and birth certificates predating March 24, 1971 (Bangladesh's independence eve).
  • The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was enacted the same year, providing a fast-track citizenship path for persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
  • In the West Bengal enclave context, former enclave residents have only post-2015 documents — but their Indian citizenship is statutory, not dependent on pre-2015 documentation.

Connection to this news: The West Bengal SIR situation parallels Assam's NRC experience: document-poor communities — whose citizenship is legally valid — face exclusion from civic life due to administrative processes that do not adequately account for their specific historical circumstances. The Supreme Court's appellate tribunal mechanism mirrors the corrective approach used in the Assam NRC.

Key Facts & Data

  • 100th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2015: gave legal effect to the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement.
  • Date of enclave exchange: July 31, 2015 (midnight).
  • Enclave residents who became Indian citizens: approximately 16,000 from 51 Bangladeshi enclaves.
  • West Bengal SIR: ordered by ECI; approximately 60 lakh voters across the state placed "under adjudication."
  • Supreme Court directive (March 10): constituted appellate tribunals to resolve adjudication disputes.
  • Cooch Behar district: primary affected area; location of most former Bangladeshi enclaves in India.
  • Article 325: no discrimination in electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, caste, or sex.
  • India-Bangladesh boundary: 4,156 km — the fifth longest international land border in the world.