Kerala SIR drive:EC extends claims and objections deadline to January 30

Thiruvananthapuram: The Election Commission of India (EC) has extended the period for filing claims and objections under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll up to January 30 in Kerala, but the final list will be published on February 21.

Earlier, the period was fixed from December 23, when the draft was published, to January 22.

The EC decision has come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court advising the poll body to consider the desirability of extending the ‘claims and objections period’ suitably. The Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) also had requested the EC to extend the ‘claims and objections period’. The EC decision was made public through a notification on Sunday. The hearing of 7.45 lakh out of the 14.3 lakh people who were sent notices to submit their documents has been completed.

The earlier deadline for filing complaints was to end on Thursday. However, the Supreme Court's intervention forced the Election Commission to extend the time. This was also the main demand raised by the parties in all the meetings held by the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rathan U Kelkar.

Considering the demand in the meetings, the CEO also requested the Commission to extend the time. Still, the Commission did not give in. Now, despite the court's request, it has been extended by only a week.

Kelkar said that the hearing will be completed by February 14, and the final list will be published within the stipulated time. Notices are being sent to 19.32 lakh people who signed the enumeration form. The documents have to be produced because their names do not match the 2002 list.