The Supreme Court on Monday refused to extend the deadline for filing claims and objections under the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra, but issued notice to the poll body on a plea alleging that 33 per cent of voters had been deleted from the rolls, ANI reported.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mahadevan sought the ECI's response to the petition filed by Arun Anandagiri. The court, however, assured the petitioner that it could extend the deadline if it found such a direction necessary. The matter will be heard on November 5.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench that around 3,500 redevelopment projects were underway in Mumbai and Pune, with old housing colonies being demolished and thousands of residents being relocated. He argued that their names could be deleted from the electoral rolls because of missing addresses and other details.
Datar also sought a direction to the ECI to introduce a separate form for people already enrolled as voters in previous elections. He argued that asking existing voters to fill Form 6, which is meant for new voter registrations, was incorrect.
The petitioner sought an extension of Monday's deadline for filing claims and objections to give affected voters more time to submit their documents. He also sought a stay on the finalisation of the electoral rolls until the court heard the matter.
The bench declined to extend the deadline immediately but said it would consider doing so if necessary.
“Don’t worry. You are a whistleblower. You have come to us. Don’t worry. We can always extend the date. If we find that there are people who are yet to file their documents, we will. We have been extending dates in earlier (SIR) matters also,” the Chief Justice said, the ANI report added.
The ECI had earlier revised the schedule for the SIR exercise in Maharashtra. The deadline for filing claims and objections was extended from September 30 to October 12, while the final publication of the electoral rolls was rescheduled from November 4 to November 16, 2026.
The period for disposing of claims and objections by electors was scheduled to continue until November 10.
(With inputs from PTI)
