'No two weeks, just two days'; SC refuses to extend Kerala SIR deadline

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court rejected the plea to extend SIR (Special Intensive Revision) in Kerala. SIR was extended by only two days. The court directed that this should not be used as a political weapon. Earlier, the court had extended it by a week.

Miniding the upcoming Christmas vacation, the state government had requested an extension of two more weeks to complete SIR. After hearing the arguments of the Election Commission, the court allowed SIR to be extended by two more days but rejected the state’s request to extend it by two more weeks.

The Election Commission informed the court that the deadline was extended by one more week, in which 97 per cent of the forms were already returned. However, the government argued that at least two lakh people have to submit the forms, while many others are waiting for their names to be included in the voters' list.

The court had earlier directed the Election Commission to consider extending the last date for submission of enumeration forms. The bench headed by Chief Justice Suryakant had also ordered that the Election Commission can proceed with the SIR process.

The Election Commission had then accepted the state government's request for a week's extension and announced that the forms would be accepted till December 18. Accordingly, the draft list will be published on the 23rd and the final list on February 21st.