Kerala High Court Urges State to Approach Supreme Court Over Voter Roll Revision Row

The Kerala High Court on Thursday strongly advised the state government to escalate its challenge against the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls directly to the Supreme Court, noting that multiple other states have already filed Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) on the same issue, as Justice V G Arun prepares to issue a formal order on Friday regarding Kerala’s plea to defer the voter list cleanup until local body elections conclude.

During intense arguments in the state’s writ petition, Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup clarified that Kerala is not contesting the constitutional validity of the SIR itself but solely seeking a temporary suspension within its borders to avoid administrative paralysis, given that the massive local self-government institution (LSGI) polls—scheduled across two phases on December 9 and 11—will mobilize a staggering 1,76,000 government and quasi-government personnel for election duties alongside 68,000 security officials, leaving no bandwidth for simultaneous door-to-door enumeration.

The state painted a grim picture of logistical collapse, warning that overlapping timelines would derail both processes: election notifications drop on November 14, nominations close November 21, scrutiny follows on November 22, withdrawals end November 24, and counting wraps up December 13 with final results mandated by December 18—all while the SIR’s labor-intensive protocol demands Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and party agents visit every household with pre-filled forms bearing EPIC numbers and addresses to collect fresh signatures before digital uploads, a task already 55% complete nationwide since its November 4 launch.

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Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the Election Commission, mounted a robust defense, asserting that the SIR was publicly announced on October 27 with BLO training completed well in advance, and any mid-stream judicial interruption by the High Court would sabotage a time-bound national exercise set to conclude by December 4; he stressed that the process is minimally intrusive—requiring only a signature on pre-populated forms—yet critical for purging ghost voters, duplicates, and deceased entries before draft rolls are published on December 9.

With political temperatures rising over fears that the SIR could disenfranchise genuine voters or delay local polls, the High Court’s nudge toward the Supreme Court signals an impending high-stakes constitutional battle, as Kerala braces for a potential standoff between electoral purity mandated by the EC and the state’s urgent need to execute one of India’s largest democratic exercises without bureaucratic meltdown.

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