The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Election Commission on Friday (November 21, 2025) demanding to stop the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Kerala. Apart from the Kerala government, some political parties have also demanded a ban on SIR citing local body elections in the state. The court will now hold the next hearing in this case on November 26.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission’s decision to conduct SIR exercise of voter lists in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and other states. Congress MP from Barabanki Tanuj Punia has also demanded not to get SIR done in Uttar Pradesh. The court issued notice on this also. However, the court made it clear that on November 26 it will hear only the Kerala case. Apart from this, hearing of pending petitions on Bihar SIR will be held on that day.
The bench of Justice Surya Kant, Justice SVN Bhatti and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to the Election Commission on all the new petitions of various leaders challenging the exercise of SIR on different grounds in the states. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for a petitioner challenging the SIR in Kerala, said that local body elections are also to be held in the state and hence, the matter requires urgent consideration.
The bench directed that the petitions challenging the SIR in Kerala will be listed for hearing on November 26 and the remaining petitions challenging the exercise in other states will be heard in the first or second week of December. The Supreme Court is already hearing a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Election Commission’s decision to conduct SIR across India.
On November 11, the court had sought separate replies from the Commission on the petitions of leaders of DMK, CPI(M), West Bengal Congress and Trinamool Congress. In these petitions, the SIR of the voter list in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal was challenged.