The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file its response by December 1 to a series of petitions questioning the legality and timing of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.
A Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, passed the direction after the Commission insisted that the revision exercise was progressing smoothly and that the petitioners were exaggerating concerns on the ground.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, said the narrative presented in the petitions did not match the actual situation. He told the court that 99 percent of enumeration forms had already been distributed in Kerala and that most of the work was nearing completion.
He added that the ECI was coordinating closely with the Kerala State Election Commission (KSEC), which had assured that the ongoing enumeration would be completed by December 4.
Petitioners disagreed sharply, alleging severe pressure on Booth Level Officers (BLOs) carrying out the exercise. They claimed that several BLOs had died by suicide and others were hospitalised due to stress.
Dwivedi pushed back, saying the KSEC had confirmed that its work was not affected by the upcoming local body polls. “I have statistics to show the exercise is going on smoothly. It is political parties and leaders who are creating a scare,” he told the court.
Taking note of the conflicting accounts, the Bench said it would also ask the KSEC to file an official response. “We will get an official confirmation from the ECI. They will give a clear status of what is happening on the ground,” the court said.
The petitions before the court have been filed by several political actors, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Kerala Congress functionaries, CPI(M) leaders, and Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen. The Kerala government has also moved the court, seeking deferment of the SIR because it clashes with local body elections scheduled on December 9 and 11.
The court agreed to hear the Kerala matters on December 2, acknowledging the urgency due to the upcoming polls.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, representing petitioners from Tamil Nadu, said the situation there was also critical. Half of the enumeration forms, he said, had been distributed, but BLOs were struggling to complete door-to-door visits due to heavy rains and a looming cyclone.
When the Bench asked whether the petitions challenged only the SIR process, senior advocate Kapil Sibal clarified that many pleas questioned not just the procedure but also the basis and timing of the entire exercise.
For West Bengal, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee said the situation was “alarming,” claiming that 23 BLOs had died by suicide. He warned that unless the court intervened, the draft rolls would be published by December 9. He urged the court to issue notice to the state government.
The Bench said it would certainly intervene if it found that a large number of people were being left out of the rolls. Dedicated hearings for Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are scheduled for December 4 and December 9 respectively. The court also allowed the West Bengal government to file its reply.
Separately, the Supreme Court is examining the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision process in Bihar, indicating that the issue now has multi-state implications.
