CJI recommends Justice Surya Kant as successor Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, who is retiring on November 23, has recommended Justice Surya Kant as successor. Justice Surya Kant, the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after Justice Gavai, will become the 53rd CJI. He will have a tenure of 14 months before retiring on February 9, 2027. The retirement age for Supreme Court judges is 65 years. Kant was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2019 and has been part of several landmark verdicts. kochi l tuesday l October 28, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI SIR of electoral rolls in 9 states, 3 UTs from Nov 4 Pinarayi fails to placate CPI on PM SHRI issue Poll-bound oppn-ruled states Kerala, TN, Bengal under its ambit M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi EXPRESS READ SC allows govt to reassess Vi’s dues New Delhi: In a major relief for Vodafone Idea (Vi), the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the government to reassess the demand for adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues raised against the telecom operator. While passing the order, the SC observed that the decision on any relief to the telco is a policy matter and the court need not interfere. P10 Key building rule changes in the offing T’Puram: Soon, the government will issue instant approvals for building permit applications. With the announcement of local body elections expected any time soon, the state government is all set to bring in major reforms to the permit system. The plan is to give instant approvals for a majority of applications through K-SMART platform. P5 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express K S S R E E J I T H @T’Puram Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s attempt to pacify key LDF ally CPI, disgruntled over the state government signing the PM SHRI MoU with the Union government, failed on Monday with the latter remaining firm on its demand that the state should withdraw from the agreement. Besides CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam, the party’s four ministers attended the hour-long meeting at Alappuzha guest house. CPM state secretary M V Govindan was also present. During the meeting, the CM made it clear that the state won’t be able to back out of the project. Only the Union government has the authority to cancel the MoU, he said. However, both CPM and CPI intensified their efforts to reach a consensus and prevent the situation from getting out of control. The CPM sought the intervention of its national leadership. Party general secretary M A Baby held discussion with his CPI counterpart D Raja in Delhi. The CPM has also decided to convene a meeting of the LDF state committee shortly to discuss the issue. Meanwhile, the CPI has called a meeting of its state council on November 4. Pinarayi assured the CPI leaders during the meeting that the National Educational Policy (NEP) would not be implemented in the state. However, Binoy contended that since the state has only signed an MoU, it can withdraw from the scheme. He alleged that the whole scheme is designed to showcase the ● More on P4 NEP  . The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union Territories in two phases — door-to-door enumeration forms distribution and collection — from November 4 to December 4. The final voters’ list would be published on February 7. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said the draft rolls would be published on December 9; claims and objections can be filed from December 9 to January 8; and hearing and verifications from December 9 to January 31. The nine states are Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and the UTs are Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry . Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal will go to the polls in 2026. As for Assam, where polls are due in 2026, the revision of rolls will be announced separately, as a separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable to the state. “Under the Citizenship Act, there are separate provisions for citizenship in Assam. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the exercise of checking citizenship is about to be completed. The June 24 Required indicative documents for the revision of draft electoral roll Any identity cards, pension payment order issued to regular employee/pensioner of any Central government/State govt/PSU Birth certificate issued by competent authority Matriculation/ Education certificate issued by recognised Boards/Univs Forest Rights Certificate Any identity cards/ certificate/ documents issued by Indian govt/ banks/local authorities/PSU Passport Permanent resident certificate issued by State authority OBC/ST/SC or any caste certificate National Register of Citizens (wherever it exists) Family register prepared by state/ local authorities Any land/ house allotment certificate by govt Aadhaar can be used as proof of identity, but not as proof of date of birth or citizenship The state governments are bound by Constitution to provide the necessary personnel to the ECI for the preparation of electoral rolls and conduct of polls — Gyanesh Kumar, CEC SIR order was for the entire country. Under such circumstances, this would not have applied to Assam,” Kumar said. Ruling out any confrontation with the West Bengal government, where the ruling Trinamool Congress has expressed reservations about the SIR exercise in the state, Kumar said, “There is no hurdle between the Election Commission and the State government. The Commission is doing its constitutional duty by carrying out the SIR under Article 326 of the Constitution and the State government will discharge its constitutional duties.” As for Kerala’s local bodies elections, due in November-December, Kumar said, “The notification for the same was yet to be issued and the state governments are bound by Constitution to provide the necessary personnel to the Election Commission of India for the preparation of electoral rolls and conduct of polls.” Stray dogs case SC summons almost all chief secretaries S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday directed the chief secretaries of almost all states and Union Territories to appear before it on November 3 to explain why no compliance affidavits have been filed yet in the stray dogs case. “Your officers don’t read newspapers? They don’t read social media? They want a formal notice to be issued to them?” three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria said. It said all chief secretaries, except those of Telangana and West Bengal, should be present before it on November 3, otherwise “we will hold the court in auditorium”. The court had, on August 22, reversed an earlier order directing authorities to move all stray dogs to shelters and said they can be released to the same area from where they were captured after proper sterilisation and immunisation. The August 22 order expanded the scope of the stray dogs case beyond the Delhi NCR and directed that all states and UTs be made parties in the matter.