Kerala moves Supreme Court to postpone voter roll revision

The Kerala government has approached the Supreme Court seeking the revision of voter rolls in the state to be deferred until after local body elections, Bar and Bench reported on Tuesday.

Local body polls in the state are due to be held in two phases on December 9 and December 11, with votes scheduled to be counted on December 13. The last date for completion of the election is December 18.

On November 4, the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise in 12 states and Union Territories, including Kerala.

The Kerala High Court had on November 14 refrained from deferring the exercise and asked the Left Democratic Front government to approach the Supreme Court.

In its petition, the Kerala government has told the Supreme Court that revising voter rolls and conducting the polls simultaneously will lead to an “administrative impasse” and disrupt the elections, Live Law reported.

According to the state's petition, the elections would require about 1.7 lakh government personnel apart from 68,000 police officials and security staff. The voter roll revision exercise would demand an additional 25,668 personnel, Bar and Bench quoted the petition as saying.

“This puts a severe strain on the state administration bringing routine administrative work to a standstill,” the government argued.

It also underlined that, unlike the local body polls that are mandated to be conducted within a strict schedule, there is no such requirement for the special intensive revision exercise.

“The ECI has also not made out any special reasons for conduct of a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in the state,” Live Law quoted the plea as saying. “Therefore, no prejudice will be caused to any sides if the SIR stands deferred.”

The Kerala government told the court that while the state may challenge the need for a revision of voter rolls separately, the current petition only pertains to deferring the exercise, Bar and Bench reported.

The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections from December 9 to January 8, while hearings and verifications will take place from December 9 to January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

In September, the Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a resolution against the Election Commission's decision to conduct the revision, saying that the “hasty” move could harm the rights of citizens.

On Sunday, a booth-level officer in the state's Kannur area died by suicide, allegedly because of work pressure linked to the revision of voter rolls.

On November 11, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to respond within two weeks on petitions filed against the exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Source: Scroll
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