Supreme Court to hear Kerala’s plea on November 21 to postpone SIR process amid local body elections

The Supreme Court agrees to hear on Friday (November 21, 2025) Kerala Government’s petition seeking a deferment of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the State as the exercise clashes with the local body elections and would lead to a strain on human resources besides resulting in an “administrative impasse”.

In its petition, the State had said the conduct of the “cumbersome” SIR process from November 4 to December 4 would coincide with the elections to the local bodies in Kerala. The simultaneous conduct of both exercises would not only strain human resource but also create an “administrative impasse” with no personnel left to take care of the day-to-day functioning of the government.

The government said the simultaneous conduct would be a “near- impossibility”.

“The SIR is a huge exercise requiring deployment of 1,76,000 personnel from government and quasi-governmental services for election-related duties and a further 68,000 police and other security personnel. The SIR is also a comprehensive process with cumbersome procedure, requiring the services of additional personnel numbering 25,668. The pool of trained and election-experienced staff is finite, which constrains real-world deployment. Parting with such a large number of officers for simultaneous SIR and local body elections is a near impossibility, apart from possibly putting the State to an administrative impasse,” the State submitted.

The State Government made it plainly clear that it did not support the constitutionality of the SIR. It said the exercise was “not conducive to the democratic polity of the country.” However, the State Government, represented by advocate C.K. Sasi, said the main thrust of the current challenge was not the legality of the SIR, but its timing. The government said undertaking the SIR would affect the smooth conduct of the local bodies’ election.

The Kerala State Election Commission has decided to conduct elections to the LSGIs in the State on December 9 and 11. The notification for the election was issued on November 14 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations on November 24. The counting of votes would be on December 13 and the last date for completion of election is December 18.

The State said the Chief Electoral Officer of Kerala had communicated that the personnel deployed for the LSGIs elections would not be engaged in the SIR exercise.

For the smooth conduct of the local bodies elections, a massive detail of personnel would be needed. These include local bodies’ officers; personnel notified as returning officers, assistant returning officers, electoral registration officers and their entire staff; sectoral officers identified by the district election officers; the officers deputed for first-level checking of electronic voting machines; officers deputed for training in relation to the election; and officers to be appointed as presiding officers and first polling officers.

“These personnel should not be appointed as Booth Level Officers [BLOs],” the State said.