SC asks ECI to extend deadline, publish list of voters deleted in Kerala SIR

Having regard to the difficulties allegedly being experienced by people in the state, we allow the ECI to extend time, the bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to extend the deadline, preferably by two weeks, for filing objections and to publicly display the list of voters removed from the draft electoral roll in Kerala following the special intensive revision (SIR).

As per the Kerala state poll panel, the draft electoral list published last month has 25.4 million voters, of which 24,08,503 voters were removed following the SIR. (Representative photo)

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant passed the order after hearing the petitioners’ grievance that nearly 24 lakh voters had been deleted from the draft roll and that the list had not been made public, leading to confusion as the deadline for submitting claims ends on January 22.

“Having regard to the difficulties allegedly being experienced by people in the state, we allow the ECI to extend time,” the bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vijay Bishnoi, said.

ECI lawyer Eklavya Dwivedi told the court that the commission had in the past extended time on two occasions and was aware of the ground realities. While the court left it to the poll panel to decide how much time was to be granted, it observed, “You consider extending the time by two weeks.”

The court further asked the commission to ensure that the list of deleted voters is publicly displayed, as was done in the case of Bihar. “The list of persons deleted from the draft roll should be displayed in the offices of the Gram Panchayat or any other public office located in the village, besides displaying it on the website,” the court said.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for one of the petitioners challenging the SIR in the state, said, “About 24 lakh persons have been deleted from the list. This list is not available and due to shortage of time, people are unable to know who are on the rolls, and those deleted are not able to file objections.”

Kumar further pointed out that the list of people who are not “mapped” with details of their parents on the 2002 electoral roll is also not known.

As per the Kerala state poll panel, the draft electoral list published last month has 25.4 million voters, of which 24,08,503 voters were removed following the SIR, including voters who are dead, migrated, or could not be traced.

The EC informed the court that it had already filed a response in the petition filed by the Kerala government, which had sought deferment of the SIR enumeration as it clashed with the local body polls.

As this issue no longer exists and other petitions have questioned the validity of holding the SIR, the court asked Dwivedi to examine all the petitions and consider filing a comprehensive response to all pleas related to the SIR in Kerala.

The Kerala government was represented by advocate C.K. Sasi, while the other petitioners who have challenged the Kerala SIR include Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, CPI(M) leader M.V. Govindan Master, and Kerala Congress president Sunny Joseph.

Rural voter deletions flagged in UP SIR

The court also took up the matter related to the SIR in Uttar Pradesh, where the ECI informed the court that a response would be filed by the end of the day.

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Barabanki Congress lawmaker Tanuj Punia, pointed out that the final draft roll following the SIR shows a lower number of rural voters compared to the roll prepared at the panchayat level. He indicated that a representation was made to the ECI but no response was forthcoming.

Nearly 28.9 million voters were removed from the draft roll at the end of the SIR exercise, of which more than 4.6 million were declared dead voters, with the remaining having migrated or being untraced.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for another petitioner in the UP case, urged the court to consider allowing the linkage of Aadhaar cards with voter identity cards, considering the fact that the state has a large number of migrant labourers.

The court agreed to consider the matter after going through the response of the poll panel.