Kerala SIR | 99% Of Voters Given Forms, No Need To Defer Process Citing Local Body Polls : ECI Tells Supreme Court

Opposing the pleas to defer the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in Kerala, the Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court that 99% of voters have been supplied with the enumeration forms, and 50% of the forms have been digitised.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the ECI, told a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that there was no need to defer the SIR due to the local body election process, saying that the ECI was acting in coordination with the State Election Commission.

"The State Election Commission and the Election Commission of India are collaborating with each other. There was a meeting with the officials of various districts. There's no problem; we just need a small section of BLOs. The Commisisons are not finding any difficulty. The SEC also said our work is not hampered," Dwivedi submitted.

"You can just examine administratively; ultimately, you are the set of officers," CJI Kant responded. "No. Different sets of people are allocated (for SIR and local body elections). We have also told the SEC that if it is necessary to take somebody from those allocated to us, you do so," Dwivedi clarified.

"It is a matter of a few days only," CJI Kant said. Dwivedi replied, "In any case, it is almost over. 99% of the voters have been distributed the forms. More than 50% have been digitised. So there is no difficulty at the level of the State Election Commission and the Central Election Commission."

The bench asked the ECI to file a status report regarding the SIR process in Kerala by next Monday (December 1). The matter will be next posted on December 2. The bench has also sought the affidavit of the SEC as per the request made by Dwivedi.

When the bench initially proposed posting the matter on December 9, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (for Kerala) and Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar (for CPI(M) Secretary Govindan Master) requested an earlier posting, pointing out that the local elections are scheduled for December 9. Sibal and Kumar submitted that they do not want to file any rejoinder to the ECI's counter-affidavit and sought an urgent hearing.

The bench was hearing the petitions filed by the Kerala Government and certain political parties seeking the deferment of the SIR, in view of local body elections, which are scheduled to take place on December 9 and December 11. As per the SIR schedule, the enumeration forms have to be submitted by December 4, and the draft rolls will be published on December 9. The State argued that conducting the SIR in parallel to the local body elections resulted in administrative difficulties.  The State had initially approached the High Court seeking the postponement of SIR; however, the Kerala High Court declined to interfere, asking the State to approach the Supreme Court.

The special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Kerala has also been challenged by Indian Union Muslim League General Secretary PK Kunhalikutty, KPCC President Sunny Joseph and CPI(M) Secretary MV Govindan Master. 

Kerala government's petition has not challenged the SIR notification per se and only seeks postponement of the process. The State had initially approached the Kerala High Court seeking to defer the SIR process until the local body elections. However, the Kerala High Court declined interference, suggesting that the State approach the Supreme Court which is seized of the SIR-related matters.

Case Title: STATE OF KERALA v. THE ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA AND ORS | W.P.(C) No. 1136/2025 and connected matters.

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