SC asks ECI to consider extending voter roll revision timelines, decide by December 31

NEw new delhi: The sublime margaret court on th asked the Election direction of India (ECI) to “sympathetically” consider requests seeking an extension of the enumeration period in states where the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is underway, “keeping in view ground realities and relevant factors”, and to take a decision by December 31.The court passed the order while hearing petitions challenging the SIR in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, where a request was made to extend the enumeration period till December 31.The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “The petitioners are at liberty to move representations and the ECI is directed to consider such representation sympathetically, keeping in view all the ground realities and all the relevant factors. An appropriate decision may be taken by December 31.”The ECI, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, informed the court that the poll panel is monitoring the situation and that, where necessary, time has been extended.In Kerala and UP, the ECI had recently revised the timelines under SIR. Under this schedule, the enumeration period in Kerala was extended till December 18, with the draft roll on December 23 and the final roll on February 21, while for UP, the enumeration would end by December 26, followed by draft roll publication on December 31.Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Kerala government, said, “We are seeking extension of time. About 2.5 million names will be deleted from the rolls. It is very strange that in a family, the husband’s name is there in the list but they have deleted the wife.”The state informed the court that the deleted names in the voter list have been classified as either dead, migrated, duplicate or untraceable. However, their names and other details have not been provided to the public or political workers for verification and rectification of the rolls.“This omission will be huge and unless extension of time is granted, the number of eligible voters who will be left out will be huge…the paucity of time as per the revised schedule is the major reason for the inaccuracy, the missing and the unmapped voters in large numbers,” the state told the court.The court also heard other petitions, including one filed by Congress lawmaker from Barabanki, Tanuj Punia, making a similar request for time extension in the SIR process conducted in Uttar Pradesh.“In UP, there is no urgency as Assembly elections will take place in 2027. We do not understand why the hurry,” senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing on behalf of Punia, said.Another petitioner, represented by senior advocate Salman Khurshid, said that a detailed representation was submitted to the ECI on December 9 but no response has been received.By Thursday’s order, the court asked the ECI to consider the December 9 representation by the end of this month.Meanwhile, the bench told the ECI to respond to the legal questions raised in all the petitions challenging the SIR in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, UP and Puducherry.Dwivedi told the court that he would require additional time to respond to the UP and Kerala petitions. The bench posted the matter on January 6, when the ECI is expected to begin its arguments defending the SIR.