The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission to consider extending the deadline for filing objections to the deletion of names from Kerala’s draft electoral rolls following the special intensive revision, reported Live Law.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made the suggestion citing difficulties faced by voters in accessing details of those excluded.
The bench also directed the poll body to publicly display the names of excluded voters at gram panchayat offices or other public offices in villages, and to publish the list on its official website, the legal news outlet reported.
The special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including Kerala. The exercise is currently in the claims and objections stage in the state.
In Kerala, the draft electoral rolls published on December 23 showed that 24 lakh names had been excluded from an electorate of 2.7 crore, or approximately 8.7%.
The voters can file claims and objections to deletions until January 22. The notice phase, which includes hearings and verification, will continue until February 14, and the final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on February 21.
On Thursday, the petitioners told the court that while voters can object to deletions, the list of persons removed from the draft roll is not available to them, Live Law reported.
Counsel for the Election Commission submitted that the court’s earlier direction on publicly displaying draft electoral rolls had been complied with.
However, the bench said that if the list of excluded voters had not already been made public, it must be displayed at local public offices and on the commission’s website.
“Meanwhile, having regards to the difficulty being experienced by the people at large, the [Election Commission] may consider the desirability of extending the date,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.
Counsel for the commission agreed to consider the suggestion.
The court is hearing a batch of petitions against the validity of the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in several states, including Kerala.
One of the petitions has been filed by the Kerala government, which had not challenged the exercise but sought a postponement in view of the local body elections that were held on December 9 and December 11.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners had moved the Supreme Court against it.
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