New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday directed that the names of persons excluded from the draft electoral rolls in Kerala following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) be made publicly available both at local offices and on the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) official website.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the ongoing SIR process in the state.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s side submitted that nearly 24 lakh names had been deleted in the draft rolls released by the poll body and argued that affected individuals could not file objections without a published list of those excluded.

“They have to list objections, but the list of those persons deleted is not available. Now people have to go back and file objections stating why you deleted me; that opportunity is missing for us,” counsel submitted.

It was further contended that in many cases, individuals were wrongly marked as deceased or shown as residing outside Kerala.

Taking note of the submission, the apex court ordered that the names of individuals who have been excluded from the draft electoral list, if not already displayed, shall be displayed at the offices of the gram panchayat or any other public office located in the villages, and the list shall also be published on the website.

The CJI-led Bench suggested that the ECI may consider extending the deadline for filing objections to deletions.

In an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court permitted petitioners seeking additional time for the SIR process of electoral rolls in Kerala to submit their representations to the ECI and directed the poll body to decide on these by December 31, 2025.

According to official figures, Kerala had 2,78,50,856 voters on the rolls before the revision. Of these, 2,54,42,352 forms have been received, accounting for a coverage of 91.35 per cent. The remaining 8.65 per cent — around 24,80,503 voters — are yet to submit their forms. The ECI has identified 6,49,885 voters as deceased, while 6,45,548 persons have been categorised as “untraceable” during the enumeration process. Based on the forms received, a booth-level draft list comprising about 2.54 crore voters has now been prepared and published.

–IANS

pds/vd