Kerala High Court refuses to entertain State's plea to defer SIR; says government may move Supreme Court

The Kerala High Court on Friday refused to entertain the plea filed by the State government seeking deferment of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) [State of Kerala, Represented by the Chief Secretary to the Government v. The Election Commission of India]

Justice VG Arun said that judicial discipline requires the High Court to not entertain the plea since petitions concerning SIR in other States are already pending before the Supreme Court.

Hence, the single-judge allowed the State to approach the Supreme Court.

"Judicial discipline and comity requires this court to not entertain this petition. Therefore this writ petition is closed leaving it open for the petitioner to move the Supreme Court or approach this court depending on the outcome of the petitions pending before the Supreme Court," the Court said.

The Kerala government filed the plea in light of the upcoming panchayat elections in the State.

According to the plea, the elections would require about 1,76,000 government personnel apart from 68,000 security personnel.

The conduct of SIR would require the services of an additional 25,668 personnel.

The same officials would have to be deployed for duties in connection with SIR and panchayat elections and this would strain the human resources of the State, it was argued.

"The pool of trained and election-experienced staff is finite, which constrains real-world deployment. Parting with such number of officers for simultaneous SIR and LSGI elections is a near impossibility, apart from possibly putting the State to an administrative impasse," the State explained.

Besides, while there is a Constitutional mandate to conduct the panchayat elections before December 21 this year, there is no such urgency when it comes to SIR, the State said.

As per Section 21(2) of the Representation of People Act of 1950, the electoral roll has to be revised, unless otherwise directed by ECI, before each general election to the House of People or to the Legislative Assembly of a State.

Since the process of the general elections to the State Legislative Assembly ought to be completed only before May 24, 2026, there is no emergent necessity to carry out the SIR simultaneously with the panchayat elections in the State, it was argued.

Appearing for the Kerala government, Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup K assured the Court that the State is not standing in the way of conducting the SIR and is only seeking to postpone it.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for ECI, submitted that SIR in the State has been scheduled in the backdrop of assembly elections due in Kerala next year.

Dwivedi also said that the State government's apprehensions regarding administrative strain are wholly unfounded, pointing out that the State Election Commission was not raising any such concerns.

While reserving verdict in the matter yesterday, Justice VG Arun opined that the issue should ideally be heard by the Supreme Court as it was already hearing petitions challenging SIR in other states.

The Supreme Court is already seized of petitions challenging SIR in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The ECI had first directed a Special Intensive Revision in June 2025 for Bihar. Multiple petitions, including those filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW), are already pending before the Supreme Court challenging that order.

Despite those challenges being sub-judice, the ECI on October 27 2025 extended the SIR to other States and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.

The SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have been challenged before the Supreme Court which issued notice on those petitions on November 11.

The Bihar SIR was meanwhile completed since the Supreme Court did not stay the process. The SIR in all these States will be subject to the outcome of the petitions before the apex court.