'Better To Approach SC': Kerala High Court To State On Plea To Defer SIR; Reserves Order

The Kerala High Court today reserved its order on the State government's plea to defer the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State, ahead of elections to Local Self Government Institutions.During the hearing, Justice V.G. Arun orally expressed disinclination to hear the matter and asked the State to approach the Supreme Court, where similar matters are pending."I am not saying that there is no power of judicial review vested with this Court. I'm only saying that as the matter is under consideration before the Supreme Court, it will be appropriate for this Court, or rather inappropriate for this Court to go into the question as to whether the revision can go on or there should be a deferment of the SIR revision process...The other option is, abide by what the Supreme Court has said and defer the writ proceedings, which will also be of no benefit because the Supreme Court says we request jurisdictional High Courts to keep in abeyance/defer the writ proceedings...Ultimately, if an order is passed, that will hamper the process, which definitely...this is also a time-bound process and the validity of which is being considered."The Kerala State Election Commission has announced that the 2025 local body elections will be held in two phases on December 9 and 11, with counting scheduled for December 13. The last date for completion of election process is December 18.Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup appearing before Justice V.G. Arun argued that if SIR is conducted simultaneously with the local elections, the State administration will come to a standstill."The State will be put to an administrative impasse, on account of simultaneous conduct of elections to the LSGIs and the SIR. 1,76,000 personnel are required for LSGI election purposes, apart from 68,000 security personnel. Besides, the conduct of SIR requires the services of additional personnel numbering 25,668. This puts a severe strain on the State administration bringing routine administrative work to a standstill," he said.SIR is an Election Commission drive to verify and update India's voter rolls. The State urged that the exercise be deferred till December 21, in view of the upcoming elections. The AG submitted that as of day, the election process have started in full swing.As the Court orally pointed that SIR is also a time-bound process and Kerala is lagging compared to the other states, the AG responded that at present, there is no emergency to have it before December 20 also.Sr. Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the Election Commission of India however opposed the State's plea, contending that more than half of the exercise (SIR) is already over and any intervention at this stage would be restraining the process in the middle of the exercise."AG is saying that there would be an impasse," the Court told the senior counsel at this juncture.However, Dwivedi responded, "Wholly unfounded because the election commissions are interacting, co-ordinating with the officers...we have decided to conduct both the exercises in a harmonious manner...There are two options. One is to shut out the exercise or to coordinate and conduct both harmoniously...we are all working under strain, judiciary works under strain...the best course to conduct both harmoniously so as not to hinder the other...We have contacted the collectors also. They have not mentioned anything...we have to manage both."Dwivedi further claimed that there is hardly any overlap of 4-5 days between the local elections and the SIR.As per the ECI schedule, preparation and training for SIR commenced back in October and presently, the enumeration period is going on. The rationalization of polling stations will be done on December 04 and draft roll will be prepared between December 05-08.The draft electoral roll will be published the next day, i.e. December 09 (also the first phase of local elections) and the window for filing objections will be open from the said date till January 08, 2026. Final electoral roll after SIR will be published on February 07, 2026.After hearing the parties for some time, the judge posted the matter tomorrow for orders.Case No: WP(C) 42591/2025Case Title: State of Kerala v. The Election Commission of India and Ors.

'Better To Approach SC': Kerala High Court To State On Plea To Defer SIR; Reserves Order

K. Salma Jennath

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