NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday asked EC to ‘sympathetically’ consider Kerala govt’s request for extending the deadline for completion of SIR of state voters list by a week beyond the conclusion of local body elections on Dec 13.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told Kerala govt to submit a representation to EC within 24 hours and asked EC to consider it sympathetically and pass an order within 2 days of receiving the request for extension.
Kerala govt had sought deferment of SIR in the state till Dec 21. But EC, through senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Maninder Singh, informed the bench that as of Nov 30, over 98% enumeration forms have been distributed and over 81% have been digitised.Dwivedi said of total 5.5 lakh govt employees, Kerala govt has allotted 25,468 govt servants as BLOs for SIR exercise and another 1.76 lakh personnel for smooth conduct of local bodies elections. Since the two sets of personnel have been assigned different kinds of work and there is no overlap, neither SIR nor local bodies elections would get impacted, he said.Kerala SEC, which is conducting the local bodies elections, also informed the bench that there had been no hiccups in the ongoing process and that on conclusion of elections on Dec 13, the personnel assigned for the purpose will be free to resume their official duties.Singh said since EC and SEC are experiencing no problem in conducting SIR and local bodies polls simultaneously, Kerala govt should not have any problem either. However, advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for a politician petitioner, said political workers cannot visit constituencies because of the local bodies elections.
