The Election Commission on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that political parties were “creating a scare” over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi were hearing multiple petitions questioning the procedure including timelines that is being followed in the intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Tamil Nadu, pointed to the compressed timelines, stating that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have verified 50 per cent of forms in the last 20 days and were now to complete the remaining 50 per cent within eight days, before the December 4 deadline. He submitted that BLOs were required to verify “50 forms a day and from December 5, 10 forms a day.
Countering the submissions, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the ECI, said that “political parties were creating a scare”, prompting Sibal to respond that he was only reading from the Commission’s own notification.
On the Kerala government’s plea seeking deferment of the SIR due to the ongoing local body elections, the Court directed both the ECI and the State Election Commission (SEC) to file their responses by December 1, and posted the matter for hearing on December 2.
“Let ECI, SEC file the counter in Kerala SIR case by December 1. List the case on December 2,” the Bench ordered.
Petitions challenging the SIR process in Tamil Nadu will be taken up on December 4, whereas the West Bengal challenge will be heard on December 9.
Earlier, the Kerala government had moved the Court stating that the SIR overlapped with the local body elections and would impose a severe administrative burden. The State said there was “no urgency” to conduct the SIR now and that simultaneous processes would strain the administration.
The Kerala government’s petition, filed through its Chief Secretary, said the SIR was “not conducive to the democratic polity of the country” and sought its deferment until December 21, 2025, by which time the local self-government election process would be completed.
Polling for Kerala’s local bodies is scheduled for December 9 and 11, with counting on December 13 and the entire process concluding by December 18. The State, which has over 1,200 local bodies and 23,612 wards, informed the Court that elections already require 1.76 lakh staff and nearly 68,000 police and security personnel.
An additional 25,668 personnel are required for the SIR, creating an “administrative impasse”, the State said, adding that the same trained staff cannot be deployed for two intensive exercises simultaneously.
It further pointed out that SIR deadlines clashed with the election calendar for local bodies: enumeration must be completed by December 4, details submitted by December 9, and the final revised rolls are to be published on February 7, 2026.
The IUML too has filed a petition raising identical concerns, asserting that the SIR cannot run parallel to an active election process.
Last month, the ECI launched the second phase of SIR across 12 States and UTs—including Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal—with final electoral rolls to be published on February 7, 2026. The SIR covers Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.