Bengal SIR: ECI orders two-level document checks during voter hearings

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed a two-level verification to confirm the authenticity of the supporting identity documents of voters during the hearing session on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list starting from December 27.

The “unmapped” voters, who are the ones not having any link with the 2002 voters’ list either through “self mapping” or through “progeny mapping”, will be summoned for hearing sessions. They will have to furnish any one of the 13 identity documents as specified by the ECI to retain their names in the final voters’ list.

Sensing that there might be possibilities of forged identity documents being furnished during the hearing session, the ECI has directed a two-level verification of these documents, first by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) concerned and the second by the District Magistrates, who are also the District Electoral Officers for the districts concerned.

“The verification of the identity documents will start soon after the end of the hearing session in the first half of January next year. In the first stage, the EROs will determine whether the identity documents are genuine or not. The second stage of verification will be done by the District Magistrates or DEOs concerned,” an insider from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, confirmed.

He also said that by imposing this two-level verification process, the accountability on the part of the EROs and DEOs has been fixed.

It is further learnt that in case the ECI, in due course, notices any forged document being cleared as a genuine document because of a deliberate overlooking factor, the EROs or the DEOs concerned will be held accountable for that error.

In case of deliberate errors, the ECI’s observations might also hurt the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) of the clearing officials concerned. The draft voters’ list was published on December 16. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14, 2026. Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the Assembly elections in West Bengal.