The Kerala High Court on Friday (14th November) refused to entertain a plea by the state government seeking the deferment of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state. A bench of Justice VG Arun declined to hear the petition, citing that similar petitions are already pending before the Supreme Court.
“Judicial discipline and comity require this court not to entertain this petition. Therefore, this writ petition is closed, leaving it open for the petitioner to move the Supreme Court or approach this court depending on the outcome of the petitions pending before the Supreme Court,” Justice Arun observed, allowing the state to approach the Supreme Court.
Kerala cites a shortage of government personnel for seeking the delay
In the petition, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government cited the upcoming Panchayat elections as a reason for seeking the delay in the SIR. It stated that the elections would require the deployment of around 1,76,000 government personnel in addition to 68,000 security personnel. It added that for conducting the SIR exercise in the state, an additional 25,668 personnel would be required, which would strain the human resources of the state.
“The pool of trained and election-experienced staff is finite, which constrains real-world deployment. Parting with such a number of officers for simultaneous SIR and LSGI elections is a near impossibility, apart from possibly putting the State to an administrative impasse,” the State said, adding that while there is a Constitutional mandate to conduct the Panchayat elections before 21st December, there is no urgency for the SIR. The state further argued that since the process of the general elections to the State Legislative Assembly is to be completed only before May 24, 2026, the SIR can be deferred.
ECI says no concerns raised by state election commission regarding the SIR
Appearing for the Election Commission of India (ECI), Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, termed the state government’s concerns as unfounded and said that the state election commission had not raised any such apprehensions. He added that the SIR has been scheduled in view of the state assembly elections next year. Pertinently, Section 21(2) of the Representation of the People Act of 1950, states that the voter list has to be revised, unless otherwise directed by the ECI, before each general election to the Lok Sabha or to a Legislative Assembly.
Multiple petitions, including those filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW), were filed before the Supreme Court challenging the SIR launched by the Election Commission in Bihar in June this year. After the successful completion of the Bihar SIR, the Election Commission announced the SIR scheduled for other states and Union Territories, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Petitions have already been filed by Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in the Supreme Court against the SIR.
