South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and some other districts witnessed a large number of such cases, top EC officials told ET.
“There are many inadmissible supporting documents like PAN card, ration card, only Aadhaar card, driving licence, ICDS certificates, notary affidavits and family registers which are flooding the system. Of these, affidavits, ICDS certificates and family registers are the documents submitted the most,” people aware of the development told ET.
In Budge Budge, there was a case where the enumeration form was completely illegible and the voter had linked his name with his father’s in the 2002 SIR and given Aadhaar and voter cards as supporting documents. This was verified by the respective AEROs and DEO but the Rolls Observers and Micro-Observers found that the enumeration form was completely illegible. Aadhaar and voter IDs are not admissible documents, a highly placed source told ET. These types of cases are sent back for review to the AEROs or EROs.
Similar cases of illegible forms have been identified during the checking process in several districts.
In South 24 Parganas district, EC officials noticed that many ‘newly-made’ family registers were issued and given by the electors as supporting documents, which was identified by EC observers, sources said.
West Bengal Chief Minister on Tuesday, reading out the list of designated documents in Bihar, asked why there is separate treatment for Bengal and Bihar. “Family registers were accepted in Bihar. Why not in Bengal? Why does data from burial grounds need to be collected? This is why the family register is needed,” Banerjee said.“AERO and EROs have to be neutral. There is digital footprint. AERO and EROs have to follow the Supreme Court order dated Jan 19, 2026. Every document uploaded by AERO/EROs –– everyone can see it. There is an IT set-up at the ECI which is strong. There is multiple checking from this IT cell and the DEO and CEO’s office. There is manual checking as well. In case of inconsistencies, it is red flagged and it should be reviewed as there is time till February 21,” West Bengal-CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal had said on Monday.
The Special Rolls observers and the over 8,000 Micro-Observers are undertaking the super-checking process.
During a meeting of the ECI full bench with the CEO and DEOs, senior EC officials, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said supporting documents submitted during hearings even included newspaper cuttings and blank pages, illegible images, which were uploaded along with the enumeration forms. The CEC pulled up DEOs to know how such documents were uploaded and why they did not verify them.
PMAY-G, Banglar Bari Schemes Documents
Two days after the SIR hearings ended in Bengal, the EC on Monday clarified that the financial assistance sanction letters under the Centre’s PMAY-G, IAY (Indira Awaas Yojana), and the state government’s Banglar Bari schemes, will not be considered as SIR documents. The clarification came in response to a query by the Bengal CEO’s office on Jan 21.
The WB CM said common people were being harassed and documents excluded after the hearing got over and said the people of Bengal are being targeted.
The EC’s clarification came when the electors will no longer be able to submit any fresh documents. The SC will next hear the Bengal SIR petition on Feb 20. It is learnt that more than 1 lakh people submitted either the PMAY-G, IAY, or Banglar Bari schemes’ financial assistance sanction letters as the only SIR document during the hearing. EOM
