SC: Nothing wrong in deleting dead or those who've shifted

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Friday said there is nothing wrong in deletion of names of the dead, and those who have either shifted out from the ward or duplicate names during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls but said that on the date of notification of elections, the voter list which is final - either the post-SIR list or the one on Jan 1, 2026, would be used for local body polls in Andhra Pradesh. A bench of chief justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana refused to entertain YSR Congress Party's appeal against Andhra Pradesh high court's decision rejecting its plea for deferment of local body elections till finalisation of SIR of electoral rolls.

The bench said SIR is a necessity as those who have passed away or shifted cannot be allowed to vote in the wards. The duplicate voters' names also are required to be struck down, and these are the anomalies that are taken care of through SIR, it said. On the plea that HC has directed finalisation of post-SIR voter list by Oct 16, the bench said as per the legislations governing the panchayat, municipalities and municipal corporations, the elections would be held based on the final voter list available on the date when the EC notifies the elections. When the SEC said that the election dates have not been notified and that it would be bound to take the final voter list available on the election notification date, the bench agreed and said if for some reason the post-SIR final electoral rolls are not published prior to the election notification, then the EC would consider holding polls based on the voter list as finalised on Jan 1, 2026.