ECI clarifies on validity of Family Register Certificates in Telangana

The Election Commission of India has ruled that Family Register Certificates issued after July 25, 2026, under the new MeeSeva mechanism, will not be valid for verification in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Telangana.

Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has clarified that the Family Register Certificates (FRC) issued after July 25, 2026, cannot be accepted as one of the designated documents during the verification process under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in the State. However, the Family Member Certificate issued prior to July 25, 2026, will be accepted during the SIR verification process.

In a letter addressed to Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy, ECI Secretary Navin Kumar backed the clarification with the mechanism followed for issuing the FRCs.

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Earlier, the Family Member Certificate was issued by Tahsildar after following a process of verification that involved cross checking documents and local inquiry, Kumar said.

While the SIR process was already underway, the State government issued orders on July 25, providing a different mechanism for issuance of an FRC through MeeSeva. 

Citing the government order, the ECI Secretary mentioned that the FRC would be issued within two days of application without any verification, based on data that would be electronically fetched from the Food Security Card (Ration Card) database. 

“There is no independent verification procedure provided prior to issuance of an FRC under the GO MS No. 172,” he said.

Further, he said the Telangana government letter regarding the issuance of GO, clarified that “It has no bearing on, and is completely delinked from the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls currently under process in the State”.

As there is an evident difference between the manner in which a Family Member Certificate would be issued under the old regime and under the new regime, the FRC issued under the new regime is equivalent to a ration card that does not form part of the one of the designated documents provided under the SIR process.

The Supreme Court, while upholding the constitutional validity of the SIR process in Bihar, has also approved the list of documents prescribed by the ECI under the SIR rule, he added.