The conflict regarding the Special Intensive Revision of Kerala’s Electoral Roll has become more intense as deadlines loom near, with continued political pressure on the Election Commission to continue with the revision process. At the same time, the Government of Kerala has warned that there will be excessive administrative pressure on State Agencies as a result of the local body elections.
The Supreme Court is now looking at this issue, as a result of disputes between the parties related to the timeline of events. The increased pressure on both sides in this matter is due to the high demand for personnel on both the special intensive revision of the electoral roll and local body elections. Each party has accused the other of misunderstanding the underlying realities of the situation. This disagreement has caused confusion for both voters and election officials, Kerala electoral roll revision.
The fundamental issues with both SIR and local body elections revolve around timing and feasibility. Presently the Election Commission states that approximately 99 percent of Kerala’s voters have already received enumeration forms, and officials have already digitized half of those forms, with daily processing continuing.
The Commission states that the numbers demonstrate a successful start to the process; however, leaders of the State maintain that conducting both SIR and local body elections concurrently will cause too much pressure on the state’s workforce. The Supreme Court must now determine whether SIR should proceed or whether it should halted until after the polling.
The Election Commission defends its timeline
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi provided a report to the Supreme Court confirming the efficient operation of the SIR process, specifically that there are regular meetings held jointly between the Commission and the State Election Commission with District Officials on an ongoing basis, and there are few Block Level Officers required for this process, therefore there should not be any issues with continuing on with the revision by the EC.
In addition to this, Dwivedi reiterated that Forms have received by ninety-nine percent (99%) of voters, and more than fifty percent (50%) of these have already digitised. Dwivedi further indicated to the bench that this process will take place without interfering with preparations for elections.
In response to the request for an update from the EC, Chief Justice Surya Kant directed the EC to file a more detailed report regarding the SIR Process; the benches will review this report on December 2, 2017. The court took into consideration extra requests that filed by IUML, CPI(M), and various other leaders pertaining to the challenge to the SIR Process.
Additionally, Tamil Nadu’s counsel opposed the implementation of the SIR Process and cited cyclone warnings and tight scheduling as reasons for their opposition and submitted that due to incomplete digitisation, a large number of voters may not be recorded. As a result, the EC received added pressure from the above mentioned to explain why it had set a deadline for completing the SIR.
Kerala government warns of administrative overload
According to the Kerala state government, local elections necessitate a significant amount of manpower, with more than 170,000 personnel assigned to polling places as well as an additional 68,000 for law enforcement. They claim that the creation of Polling ‘BLOs’ through S.I.R.s requires enormous amounts of work and burdens that should not be borne.
Furthermore, they contended that the employees of the government in the elections cannot serve as BLOs. Kerala electoral roll revision, Therefore, the Kerala government concluded that they needed to delay the implementation of the S.I.R.s to prevent administrative collapse.
The Kerala state’s petition does not challenge the S.I.R.s; it only asks for a delay. The state maintains that upon the completion of the polling, the revision process could begin. On the contrary, the Election Commission of India, who has a complete view of the ground conditions, disagreed with the states’ position, stating that the ground conditions do exist to complete the entire S.I.R. now.
In the coming days, it will be the Supreme Court that weighs both of these competing positions and calls for a balance between them.
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