Supreme Court asks Election Commission to consider pleas to extend deadlines for SIR in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday told the Election Commission to "sympathetically consider" requests to extend the deadline for the submission of the enumeration forms in the Special Intensive Revision process of the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. 

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi allowed the petitioners to make a representation to the EC on the issue of time extension.

"Please you (EC) consider such representation sympathetically and keeping in view all the ground realities and all the relevant factors, an appropriate decision shall be taken by the EC," the bench told senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC.

The court was hearing the batch of pleas challenging the SIR process across several states in the country. 

The EC's counsel said that it would need additional time for filing the response on the petitions challenging the SIR process in UP and Kerala. 

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitions related to Kerala, claimed that 25 lakh names were on the verge of deletion in the State. 

"Husband is there, the wife's name is not there, they have deleted the wife's name," he said.

The court also recorded that the EC will be making its submissions on the petitions challenging the legality of the SIR on January 6, 2026.