Kolkata, March 27 (NationPress) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that the second supplementary list of judicial adjudication cases in West Bengal will be made available on Friday.

As of Thursday night, the adjudication process was completed for approximately 36 lakh voters, which accounts for about 60 percent of the 60 lakh cases referred for judicial adjudication, according to sources from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

While the ECI has not confirmed the specific time for the release of the second supplementary list, it is anticipated that it will be published around midnight, similar to the first supplementary list which was released at midnight on March 23, as per an insider from the CEO's office.

It remains uncertain whether this new list will feature the names of individuals cleared up to Thursday night, or if it will include names processed up until Friday evening.

Recall that the final voters' list in West Bengal, excluding the 60 lakh cases under judicial review, was published on February 28. The decision was made to issue supplementary lists in accordance with the progress of judicial adjudication.

Voters whose names are deemed excludable by the judicial officers during this process will have the opportunity to appeal at any of the 19 Appellate Tribunals established for this purpose.

West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already declared that the Trinamool Congress will offer legal assistance to those affected by name deletions during the judicial adjudication process, even arranging legal counsel for them.

Before the notification of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was issued in November of last year, the total voter count in West Bengal was 7,66,37,529. In the draft list released in December, 58,20,899 names were removed, which increased to 63,66,952 in the final list published on February 28.

Following the publication of the first supplementary list on March 23, reports indicated that the number of deleted voters had risen to nearly 77 lakh.

In other news, the ECI announced on Thursday night that 14 additional returning officers for various Assembly constituencies across nine districts would be replaced. Earlier this week, 73 returning officers were also replaced.

The two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal are set for April 23 and April 29. The first phase will involve polling for 152 Assembly seats, while the second phase will cover the remaining 142 constituencies. Election results are expected to be announced on May 4.