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99% of voters supplied with enumeration forms in Kerala: EC tells SC opposing pleas to defer SIR of electoral rolls

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday opposed the pleas to defer Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala. Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing ECI, told a bench comprisingChief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that 99% of voters have been supplied with the enumeration forms, and 50% of the forms have been digitised. The Kerala government had earlier filed petitions to postpone the revision of electoral rolls as the local body elections are scheduled to take place on December 9 and 11, and conducting an SIR revision simultaneously would lead to administrative difficulties. According to the SIR schedule, the enumeration forms have to be submitted by December 4 and draft rolls will be published on December 9. Earlier, the Kerala High Court declined to intervene in the matter and directed the state to approach the Supreme Court instead. Kerala SIR: List of over 1 lakh untraceable voters to be out The State Election Commission and the Election Commission of India are collaborating with each other. There was a meeting with the officials of various districts. There's no problem; we just need a small section of BLOs. The Commission is not finding any difficulty. The SEC also said our work is not hampered, Dwivedi submitted, according to LiveLaw. The bench directed the ECI to file a status report on the SIR process in Kerala by next Monday (December 1) and posted the matter for hearing on December 2. SIR of electoral rolls in Kerala has been challenged by Indian Union Muslim League General SecretaryPK Kunhalikutty, KPCC President Sunny Joseph and CPI(M) Secretary MV Govindan Master. The Kerala governments petition did not challenge the SIR notification; it only sought a postponement of the process until after the local body elections.