SC stays Kerala HC order on updating electoral roll for civic body polls

The Supreme Court Friday stayed a Kerala High Court order directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct the local body elections there based on the electoral roll it had prepared for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The high court had also directed the SEC to update the voters' list incorporating names of the qualified voters up to February 7, 2020, for the civic body polls expected to be held in November this year.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant put on hold the Kerala High Court division bench order for two weeks.

The high court's order had come on a plea by leaders of the Congress-led UDF including Sooppy Narikkatteri of Indian Union Muslim League and others.

They had moved the division bench after a single judge of the high court dismissed their petition challenging the decision of the SEC to conduct the upcoming local body elections based on the voters' list it had prepared for the 2015 civic body polls.

Dismissing the plea, the single bench had held that the matters relating to election was the prerogative of the SEC. Narikkatteri and the UDF leaders had moved the court after the SEC had issued a direction to the election officers to renew the electoral roll of all local bodies.