The Election Commission has said that 22 lakh West Bengal “voters” whose appeals against deletion from electoral rolls are pending before tribunals cannot participate in the special camps being organised by the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The camps are meant for voters left out of the final rolls after the special intensive revision (SIR) who did not approach the tribunals.The Supreme Court is set to hear on Friday a petition of the 22 lakh “voters” seeking permission to participate in the camps.Sources in the EC said the 22 lakh deleted voters were ineligible for the camps as their cases were already under adjudication before 19 tribunals, which were equivalent to courts, across the state. All these ineligible voters have moved the Supreme Court as the West Bengal municipal poll schedule is expected to be notified early next month.They contend that since their names were left out of the electoral rolls after the SIR and their appeals remained pending before tribunals, they were unable to vote in the Assembly elections earlier this year and in the recent Nandigram and Rejinagar byelections. They have now urged the Supreme Court to allow them to participate in the EC’s special camps so that they could be enrolled in time to vote in the upcoming municipal polls.The Supreme Court was earlier scheduled to hear their appeal on October 29, but will take it up on Friday on the request of their lawyers since the earlier date was too close to the announcement of the municipal poll schedule.In a note issued on October 12, the West Bengal CEO said that, in line with the Election Commission’s directions, all 24 district electoral officers (DEOs) had launched a “proactive campaign” to ensure that no eligible voter was left out of the electoral rolls.The note said special camps were being organised across the state and that anyone with a grievance could approach the booth level officer, assistant electoral registration officer, electoral registration officer or the DEO concerned.An official said the camps were exclusively for voters who had not approached the tribunals despite their names being omitted from the final rolls due to various reasons, including being reported dead, having permanently shifted residence, being listed as duplicate voters or being unavailable when booth level officers visited their homes.