Election Commission of India Suspends Seven West Bengal Officials Over Severe SIR Dereliction of Duty
Nirvachan Sadan Cracks Down on Administrative Negligence and Misconduct Amid High-Stakes Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in Poll-Bound West Bengal
The Enforcement Action: A Decisive Strike by Nirvachan Sadan
The Election Commission of India is really serious about making sure elections are fair. So they have suspended seven government officials in West Bengal away.
This is a deal and it happened because of some serious problems. These officials were not doing their job properly. They were misusing their power.
The Election Commission of India took this action under the rules of the Representation of the People Act from 1950.
They did this because of complaints, about what was happening during the Special Intensive Revision of the rolls. The Election Commission of India is watching the Special Intensive Revision of the rolls very closely.
The Special Intensive Revision of the rolls is a big task and the Election Commission of India wants to make sure it is done correctly.
The orders to suspend people were given on Sunday night. These orders were sent to West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty in letters. This is a problem in the relationship between the Election Commission of India and the state administration of West Bengal. The Election Commission of India has suspended these officers. They have also told the state of West Bengal to start taking action against these officers right away. The Election Commission of India wants the state of West Bengal to take action, against these officers immediately.
Identified Officers and Specific Allegations
The people in charge who are also known as Additional Electoral Registration Officers are from four areas. The Election Commission of India found out that these officers were not doing their job properly when it came to dealing with voter claims and objections in areas that are considered sensitive. The Election Commission of India saw that the Additional Electoral Registration Officers were being careless, on purpose.
The people who got in trouble and are not working now are:
Murshidabad District: Dr. Sefaur Rahaman (Assistant Director of Agriculture, 56-Samserganj), Sk. Murshid Alam (ADA, Suti Block, 57-Suti), and Nitish Das (Revenue Officer, Farakka, 55-Farakka).
South 24 Parganas: Satyajit Das (Joint BDO) and Joydeep Kundu (FEO), both attached to the 139-Canning Purbo Assembly Constituency.
Paschim Medinipur: Debashis Biswas (Joint BDO, 229-DEBRA).
Jalpaiguri: Dalia Ray Choudhury (Women Development Officer, 16-Maynaguri).
The charges against these individuals are very serious. They did not do their job properly. They also shared database login information without permission. Did not keep track of Form 7 which is for objections. Sometimes people said that records about voter objections were destroyed by fire. The Election Commission of India is taking this seriously. The Election Commission of India is looking into the charges against these individuals, including the sharing of database login credentials and the failure to properly document or dispose of Form 7, for objections. The Election Commission of India is also investigating the alleged burning of records related to voter objections.
The Context of SIR: A “Purification” Under Scrutiny
The Special Intensive Revision 2026 is a big deal. It is trying to make sure the voter list in West Bengal is correct, before the Assembly Elections. The Special Intensive Revision 2026 is doing this by checking the list carefully.
The Special Intensive Revision 2026 is huge:
They got rid of a lot of names. 5.8 Million names were taken out. These names were of people who’re dead or duplicates or people who moved away for good. This happened when they were working on the version. The names that were deleted include people, duplicate names and people who have permanently shifted. So they removed all these names from the list during the draft phase of the project.
There were some problems with the information. More, than 1.5 crore voters, which is 15.2 million people had mistakes in their details. These mistakes were called ” discrepancies”. This means that the names of voters did not match the information from 2002. Also some addresses were not found on the maps. These are the kinds of discrepancies that were found with the voters.
Hearings are now finished. The ECI had a lot of hearings that went on for a time. These hearings finally came to an end on February 14. Now the ECI is going to take a look at everything, which is the final scrutiny phase, for the ECI.
The process is having a lot of problems. The Election Commission of India says the Special Identity Card Registration is necessary to get rid of voters.. The government of the state and many groups of people are worried that a lot of real voters might not be able to vote because of mistakes in the system and spelling errors in the voter list. The Special Identity Card Registration is still an issue. Many people think that the Special Identity Card Registration will cause a lot of trouble, for voters.
The Supreme Court’s Intervention and the February 17 Deadline
The Election Commission of Indias actions are supported by what the Supreme Court said on February 9 2026. The Supreme Court had some judges who made a decision. These judges were Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and N.V. Anjaria. They made it very clear that the Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls process must not have any problems. The Election Commission of India and the Supreme Court want to make sure the Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls process goes smoothly.
The court told the Election Commission of India to do something so the Election Commission of India made a change. They said the final list of voters will be ready on February 28 2026. The Election Commission of India was very unhappy that the state government did not listen to what they said. The state government was supposed to file police complaints against some officers who did something but they did not do it. The Election Commission of India had told them to do this in August 2025. The state government did not follow the orders of the Election Commission of India. The Election Commission of India is not happy, with the state government because of this. The Election Commission of India had given orders to the state government. The state government did not listen to the Election Commission of India.
Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, who was called to New Delhi Friday has to do something by February 17 at 5:30 PM. She has to meet this deadline. The deadline is February 17 at 5:30 PM, for Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty.
Complete the suspension and disciplinary formalities for the seven officers.
File criminal cases (FIRs) against five previously identified errant officials.
We need to make sure that the people in charge give money to the Booth Level Officers. The state was supposed to give them this money but they did not do it. We want the state to release the increased money, for the Booth Level Officers now.
A Climate of Mistrust: Data Security and Informal Orders
Things are getting more complicated because some groups that investigate things are saying that ranking election officials in West Bengal are using WhatsApp to give instructions about elections. Sometimes these instructions are different from what’s written down. The Election Commission of India says these claims are not true and that they are doing everything they are supposed to do. However the fact that some officers have been suspended for misusing their power suggests that the Election Commission of India knows that there are problems inside the organization, with keeping data safe and making sure the Electoral Roll database is honest. The Electoral Roll database is an important thing and the Election Commission of India needs to make sure it is safe.
As the state moves toward the final publication of the list on February 28, the atmosphere remains tense. The ECI has warned District Magistrates (DMs) of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, and the Parganas that any further lapses in overseeing the digitisation of documents will result in personal accountability.