The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with the Election Commission’s decision to fix 2002 as the base year for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Sikkim.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed a PIL filed by an NGO, seeking a direction to the poll panel to consider 1993 as the base year instead of 2002 for the ongoing SIR exercise in the state.

The court observed that the ECI has uniformly adopted 2002 as the base year for the ongoing SIR exercise across states, as the last such revision was conducted that year. However, the bench said the petitioner can approach the ECI for creating a reasonable exemption.