Setback to Opposition as Kerala High Court refuses to defer SIR in state

In a setback to the opposition’s anti-SIR agenda, the Kerala High Court has refused to entertain the state government’s petition seeking to defer the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state till completion of local body polls.

Noting that petitions against SIR in other states were pending before the Supreme Court, Justice VG Arun on Friday said, “Judicial discipline and comity also require this court to refrain from entertaining the writ petition. For the aforementioned reasons, the writ petition is closed.”

Justice Arun, however, left it open to the Kerala Government to move the Supreme Court or approach the high court depending on the outcome of the petitions pending before the apex court.

The Kerala Government had said that it was not challenging the validity of SIR exercise and that it was only seeking directions to defer the process till the elections to the local bodies were completed on December 21.

The high court said it will be inappropriate for it to entertain the state’s writ petition by interpreting the top court’s interim order.

The Supreme Court had on November 11 issued notice to the Election Commission on petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal.

A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the EC to respond to the petitions filed by the DMK, the CPI(M) and the West Bengal unit of the Congress and Trinamool Congress challenging the October 27 notification of the poll panel in this regard and posted the matter for further hearing on November 26.

The top court asked the Madras and Calcutta high courts to keep in abeyance proceedings on petitions challenging the SIR of the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

It also agreed to hear an intervention application filed by the AIADMK in support of the SIR in Tamil Nadu as a “legitimate and necessary” exercise to uphold the sanctity of elections and prevent voter fraud.

The Bench had earlier refused to stay the EC’s SIR exercise in Bihar.

On October 27, the EC announced the conduct of the second phase of the SIR exercise in 12 states and Union territories between November and February next year.

The 12 states and union territories where SIR exercise is being conducted are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal are scheduled to go to polls in 2026. Assam, where polls are also due in 2026, SIR of the electoral rolls will be announced separately.

The second phase of the SIR exercise began on November 4 and will continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9 and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.

While the Election Commission’s June 24 notification on SIR was already under challenge, the DMK has challenged the poll panel’s October 27 notification for SIR, describing it as “constitutional overreach” on the ground that the poll panel lacked the authority to implement it.