Extend date of submission of SIR enumeration forms, Supreme Court tells ECI

The Supreme Court on Thursday (December 18, 2025) asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to a “sympathetic view” of pleas to extend the date of submission of enumeration forms under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 of the electoral rolls, taking into consideration the “ground realities” in various States, including Uttar Pradesh and Kerala.

The schedule for Kerala had been revised earlier, with the enumeration deadline pushed to (Thursday) December 18 and the draft voter list to be published on December 23. The revised deadline for U.P. was modified to December 26.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for petitioners challenging the Uttar Pradesh SIR of electoral rolls, including Barabanki MP Tanuj Punia, asked what was the hurry to conduct the exercise when the Assembly elections were only scheduled to be in 2027.

For Kerala, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said 25 lakh electors would be excluded from the draft list. Mr. Sibal said December 18 was 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.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi further listed the hearing on the constitutionality of the SIR on January 6, 2026, after the winter break.

The ECI is scheduled to make its submissions countering the challenge to the SIR exercise. The previous extension was announced on December 11, 2025, the earlier deadline to submit enumeration forms.

Further, the Supreme Court did not entertain a plea citing the dangers of passing on citizens’ confidential data to “volunteers” in the enumeration phase.