The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a petition alleging exclusion of lakhs of people deleted from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal from the ration list of Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state.
A Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked petitioner Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity to approach the Calcutta High Court with his petition after the petitioner’s counsel mentioned the matter for urgent listing.
The petitioner challenged a June 4 order of the West Bengal Food and Supplies Department and a May 19 notification issued by the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare in this regard.
Between 35 lakh and 60 lakh ration cards could become inactive, the petitioner submitted.
“All those people whose names have been excluded in the SIR are sought to be excluded from the ration list and this has caused a lot of problems. Many beneficiaries are in danger of being excluded," the petitioner’s counsel Prasanna Kumar submitted.
“The Calcutta High Court is functioning. Go there,” the Bench said.
As the counsel said the SIR exercise was upheld by the top court, the Bench pointed out that the issue related to ration cards was a different cause of action. “Please take it to the high court,” Justice Nagarathna told him.
The Food and Supplies Department of West Bengal Government on June 4 ordered a state-wide verification exercise to identify and delete ineligible beneficiaries from the PDS, linking the process to the outcome of the recent SIR of electoral rolls.
The verification exercise — which was to be completed by June 15 — would cover ration card holders whose names were deleted or found ineligible during the SIR.
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.
The categories under scrutiny included 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 before the 2026 Assembly elections.
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, the department clarified.
