HC refuses to entertain Kerala’s plea to defer SIR

The Kerala High Court on Friday refused to entertain the plea filed by the Left government seeking deferment of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, being undertaken by the Election Commission ahead of elections to local self-government institutions.

A single bench of Justice V G Arun said similar matters are already pending before the Supreme Court and hence, judicial discipline demands the High Court to refrain from hearing the matter.

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“Judicial discipline and comity also require this Court to refrain from entertaining the writ petition. For the aforementioned reasons, the writ petition is closed, leaving it open to the petitioner to move the Supreme Court or to approach this Court depending on the outcome of the petitions pending before the SC,” the court said.

The state government had prayed for deferring the SIR till 21 December, 2025, that is till the completion of the process of 2025 general elections to Local Self Government institutions (LSGI) . It had argued that undertaking SIR simultaneously with the LSGI election would affect the smooth conduct of the LSGI election.

Appearing for the Kerala government,Advocate General(AG) K Gopalakrishna Kurup argued that the state has not questioned the validity of the Election Commission’s SIR and that the writ petition is confined solely to seeking its deferment within the state until the local body elections are concluded.

“The writ petition is strictly limited to seeking deferment of the SIR in Kerala,” he told the court.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for ECI, submitted that SIR in the state has been scheduled in the backdrop of assembly elections due in Kerala next year.

Dwivedi also said that the state government’s apprehensions regarding administrative strain are wholly unfounded, pointing out that the State Election Commission was not raising any such concerns.

He submitted that the SIR exercise was announced as early as October 27. BLOs were appointed and trained, and the SIR began on November 4. By now, 55 percent of the enumeration work has been completed, and the entire process is to be concluded within one month, ending on December 4. This exercise involves only obtaining the elector’s signature.