The Supreme Court asked the ECI to take a “sympathetic view” on pleas to extend SIR enumeration deadlines.
Petitioners flagged large-scale voter exclusions in Kerala and questioned the urgency of the exercise in Uttar Pradesh.
The court will hear challenges to the constitutionality of the SIR process on January 6, 2026.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take a “sympathetic view” of petitions seeking an extension of the deadline for submitting enumeration forms under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 of electoral rolls, citing the need to account for “ground realities” across States such as Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, according to The Hindu.
As reported by The Hindu, the court noted that the SIR schedule had already been revised in Kerala, where the enumeration deadline was extended to Thursday, December 18, and the draft electoral roll is now set to be published on December 23. In Uttar Pradesh, the revised deadline for submitting enumeration forms has been pushed to December 26.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for petitioners challenging the SIR exercise in Uttar Pradesh, including Barabanki MP Tanuj Punia, questioned the urgency of conducting the revision when Assembly elections in the State are due only in 2027. According to The Hindu, Mr. Luthra asked what justified rushing through the process so far ahead of the polls.
For Kerala, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that nearly 25 lakh electors risked exclusion from the draft voter list. He pointed out that December 18 marked the last date of the enumeration phase in the State. “The husband is excluded and the wife included. When the authorities know of this, they delete the wife too,” Mr. Sibal said, as quoted by The Hindu.
A Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said it would hear arguments on the constitutional validity of the SIR exercise on January 6, 2026, after the winter recess. The Election Commission is expected to file its submissions defending the revision exercise. The previous extension of the enumeration deadline had been announced on December 11, 2025, when the earlier cut-off was due to expire, The Hindu reported.
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The Supreme Court, however, declined to entertain a separate plea raising concerns about the alleged risks of sharing citizens’ confidential data with “volunteers” involved in the enumeration process, according to The Hindu.
(With inputs from The Hindu)
