Supreme Court Deems Kerala's Request to Extend SIR Form Deadline as "Just and Fair"

The Supreme Court has advised the Election Commission to consider Kerala's proposal for extending the Special Intensive Revision form submission deadline.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court described the Kerala government's petition to extend the deadline for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) form submission as "just and fair," and recommended that the Election Commission evaluate this proposal.

The Kerala government had filed the petition seeking an extension because local body elections in the state are scheduled for December 9 and 11, with vote counting set for December 13.

During the hearing, the Election Commission informed Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that they had already extended the initial December 4 deadline to December 11. However, the state government maintained that additional time was necessary to allow government employees engaged in local polls to complete their own forms.

"It seems to us that the aforesaid request is just and fair...we therefore permit Kerala to submit a request-cum-proposal for extension of the last date of the enumeration form by a week or so," stated Chief Justice Kant.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the Election Commission, confirmed that the submission deadline had been extended from December 4 to December 11.

Chief Justice Kant responded, "You extend it more so anyone who has missed out will also get an opportunity...Any officers in the state occupied in the elections would also want to enrol in the (SIR)."

When informed that the State Election Commission had filed an affidavit stating that staff involved in local body elections were exempted from SIR duties, the Chief Justice observed, "It appears the government machinery does not have a problem (with the SIR process and local body elections being done simultaneously), certain political parties have a problem."

The Election Commission revealed to the court that the state had deployed 1.76 lakh dedicated staff for the State Election Commission, while 25,468 personnel had been assigned to the SIR process.

"98.8% of SIR forms have been distributed and 80% of the forms have been digitised upon receipt," the electoral body reported.