# Three West Bengal SIR tribunals vacant as 37 lakh voters wait 2026-10-11T12:11:37+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets At least three of the 19 appellate tribunals set up in West Bengal to settle Special Intensive Revision (SIR) disputes are vacant, the Election Commission (EC) has said. The Calcutta High Court will send names of retired judges for appointment to the three tribunals. With local elections approaching, more than 37 lakh voters face an uncertain electoral status. Of 38.3 lakh appeals filed, only about 1.02 lakh have been resolved, a completion rate under three per cent. Petitioners told the Supreme Court that clearing the backlog at the current pace could take over 12 years. The opposition has called the SIR exercise the 'biggest hijacking of democracy', alleging algorithm-driven deletions disproportionately target minority communities and opposition strongholds. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The Hindu and India Today report near-identical facts on the vacancy, pendency and opposition criticism, making this uniform wire-style coverage. Both outlets lead with the three vacant tribunals and the 37 lakh voters in limbo, and both quote the opposition's 'hijacking of democracy' charge verbatim. Neither outlet offers a government or EC defence of the process or the pace of disposals. The balanced reading these texts support is that the story, as reported, is one-sided: the EC's vacancy is documented, but no official response or timeline for filling the posts beyond the High Court referral is included. The next concrete item both sources name is the Calcutta High Court sending names for appointment. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - thehindu.com (neutral report) Straight factual report, leads with vacancy and pendency, no editorialising - indiatoday.in (neutral report) Nearly identical wire-style coverage, same facts and opposition quote This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: Calcutta High Court, Election Commission of India, Special Intensive Revision, Supreme Court, West Bengal Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/three-west-bengal-sir-tribunals-vacant-as-37-lakh-voters-wait/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/three-west-bengal-sir-tribunals-vacant-as-37-lakh-voters-wait/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/