SIR in Bengal: Domicile certificates issued after July 2025 will be under ECI’s lens

The Election Commission of India will closely scrutinise domicile certificates issued in West Bengal after July 2025 during hearings on the draft voters’ list. The move follows opposition complaints of irregular issuance, with two-level verification ordered ahead of Assembly elections

Kolkata: Domicile certificates issued by the West Bengal government after July 2025, which will be provided as identity documents during the hearing sessions on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list in West Bengal starting from Saturday, will be under the special scanner of the Election Commission of India.

The Commission had already directed the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal to ensure that the District Magistrates, also the District Electoral Officers and their subordinate electoral officers to check the authenticity of the domicile certificates that are furnished as identity documents for the “unmapped” voters, those not having links with the 2002 voters’ list be it through “self mapping” or through “progeny mapping”.

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The checking of these domicile certificates furnished as identity documents will be under two broad parameters, said sources from the CEO’s office.

The first parameter will be whether these domicile certificates are genuine or fake, and the second parameter will be whether these certificates have been issued to genuinely deserving residents in the state.

At the same time, there will be a two-level checking of these domicile certificates furnished as identity documents during the hearing sessions. The first level of checking will be the electoral registration officers (EROs), and the second level of checking will be by the DEOs.

The micro-observers specially appointed for the hearing sessions by the Commission have been advised to take note of voters’ submitting domicile certificates as identity documents and inform their higher authorities.

“The decision of the Commission to bring the domicile certificates issued by West Bengal after July 2025 had been taken following complaints by different opposition parties that the state administration had indiscriminately issued domicile certificates to anyone applying for them without proper background verification,” sources in the CEO’s office said.

The leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had been especially vocal in the past, accusing the state administration of issuing domicile certificates to illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators.

The hearing session will commence on Saturday, after which a review of the documents furnished by voters during the hearing sessions will take place. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14 next year. Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal next year.