India, Feb. 4 -- A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, heard Banerjee's writ petition challenging the SIR exercise initiated by the Election Commission of India (ECI). While senior advocate Shyam Divan argued the legal issues, Banerjee made brief oral submissions - a rare instance of a sitting Chief Minister addressing the apex court.

Banerjee claimed the SIR process was "not for inclusion but for deletion", alleging that women who changed surnames after marriage, migrants and poor citizens were being removed from voter lists over minor "logical discrepancies". She alleged that 58 lakh voters had been deleted, living persons declared dead, and voters denied the right to app...