Kerala govt moves High Court against SIR

The state government’s petition was moved by Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup. Early this month, an all-party meeting had decided to legally challenge the implementation of the SIR of electoral rolls in Kerala. It was decided to challenge the SIR because of the local body elections that will be held in the state next month. Since the electoral rolls prepared for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are currently valid, conducting the SIR using the 2002 voters’ list as the base document is “unscientific”, the state has argued.

When the matter came up for hearing in the High Court, the state government pointed out the administrative difficulties in conducting the SIR when local body elections in the state are slated to be held on December 9 and 11. The government argued that the officials deputed for the SIR process have to be deployed for local body elections.

However, the state election commission, which is conducting the local body elections, and the Election Commission of India, which has rolled out the SIR, informed the court that there is no such overlap and both agencies are working in coordination. Both election commissions informed the court that booth-level officers (BLOs), crucial for the SIR, have not been assigned any duties linked with the local body elections. Likewise, the officials engaged with the conduct of the local body elections will not be entrusted with BLO duties during the ongoing SIR.

As per the ECI, enumeration forms have already reached more than half the electorate in the state as of November 13, the ninth day of the SIR process in Kerala.  According to the existing data of the Election Commission, the state has 2,78,10,942 voters on the electoral roll. As of Wednesday evening, enumeration forms have been distributed to 1.52 crore voters, or 54% of the electorate.