Amaravati: The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for local body elections in Andhra Pradesh, ruling that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls cannot be used as a ground to postpone the polls and dismissing the YSR Congress Party’s challenge to the election process. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana upheld the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s October 1 direction to the State government and the State Election Commission (SEC) to expeditiously initiate elections to rural and urban local bodies, preferably within six weeks.
The court clarified that if the Election Commission of India (ECI) publishes the revised SIR electoral rolls before the election notification, those rolls must be used. If the revised rolls are not published before notification, elections can proceed on the existing electoral rolls under the applicable State laws.
The ECI has proposed to publish the final SIR rolls on October 16, 2026, while the SEC has not yet issued the election notification. The SEC informed the Supreme Court that it was ready to issue the notification within six weeks, in compliance with the High Court’s directive.
The YSRCP had argued that elections should be held only after completion of the enumeration and revision exercise. It also challenged ward delimitation and questioned the High Court’s direction to commence the election process using the electoral rolls with reference to January 1, 2026. Senior advocate C Aryama Sundaram, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that around 44 lakh voters had been removed from the rolls as they were reported to be non-existent, while new voters had also been added. With the ECI indicating that the revision would be completed by October 16, he argued that the revised rolls should be used if the exercise concluded before the elections.
The bench questioned the need to delay the polls when neither the enumerators nor the Central government had raised objections to the process. It observed that obstructing elections would run contrary to public interest and dismissed the YSRCP petition.
During the hearing, the bench examined provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, and the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1995, governing electoral rolls for local body elections. Senior advocate K Parameshwar, appearing for the SEC, submitted that elections had not yet been notified and that the rolls currently in force would continue to apply until the ECI published the revised list.
The bench clarified that a revision undertaken during the election process would not automatically invalidate the electoral roll already in force. The applicable roll would depend on whether the revised SIR list was published before the election notification.
The proceedings arose from the High Court’s October 1 judgment in petitions concerning election delays, ward delimitation and the electoral rolls to be used. The High Court noted that the terms of urban local bodies had expired on March 17, 2026, and those of Gram Panchayats on April 2, 2026. It directed the government and SEC to commence the election process preferably within six weeks.
The High Court had also relied on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Lakshmi Charan Sen v A K M Hassan Uzzaman, which held that an ongoing revision of electoral rolls does not, by itself, invalidate existing rolls or justify postponing elections.
The Supreme Court’s ruling removes the SIR exercise as a standalone obstacle to the local body polls, leaving the State government and SEC to proceed in accordance with the court’s directions and the status of the revised electoral rolls.
