Bengal Congress chief Subhankar Sarkar on Tuesday shot a missive to the Election Commission, challenging the validity of hearing notices to electors over contentious "logical discrepancies" in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR).
Sarkar wrote the modified guidelines of conducting SIR in Bengal, issued on October 27 last year, had stated in Para 2(e): "ERO to issue notice, only after publication of draft Electoral Rolls, to those electors, who could not be linked with previous SIR Electoral Rolls, to ascertain their eligibility."
"We find to our dismay that hearing notices are being issued to over one crore electors in (Bengal) based on 'logical discrepancies', over and above the number of 'unmapped' electors whose link with the 2002 electoral roll could not be established. Notices based on such 'logical discrepancies' neither find any mention in the SIR notifications of 24.06.2025 or 27.10.2025, nor are they sanctioned by the Representation of the People Act, 1950," read Sarkar's letter.
Sarkar wrote that "logical discrepancies" identified by the EC after the draft roll was out on December 16 were irrational. Data on voters linked with "unusually high numbers of children" exposes the irrationality, he said.
"Had the threshold of 'unusually high number of children' been 10, the number of... hearing notices would have been 8,682 only. However, with the choice of 6 or more children/progeny threshold, the number of suspected electors rises to 2.06 lakh and with 5 or more children/progeny, the number crosses 4.59 lakh," he wrote.
"Given that an average family in India has 2-3 children, why should 5 or 6 children linked to a single elector be considered to be 'unusually high'," he added.
Sarkar said the "logical discrepancies" criteria "has led to over one crore electors, already included in the draft electoral roll, receiving hearing notices".
"The outcome of these hearings have neither been disclosed till date to the individual electors who are appearing in the hearings, nor has any data regarding the hearing phase been disclosed in the public domain. Such non-transparency has caused widespread anxiety and panic...," he wrote.
In view of the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Bengal SIR, Sarkar asked the EC to modify the schedule in Bengal.
He asked the EC to suspend all hearings on notices served on the basis of "so-called logical discrepancies" and hold an all-party meeting before proceeding further. He sought voters be informed in writing of the outcome of hearings conducted and the EC to disclose all data related to hearings.
His other suggestions to the EC included rectifying the error in requiring official documents "prior to 01.07.1987" for "unmapped" electors; expanding the list of official documents certifying date of birth and residential address, irrespective of date of issue, to include PAN and ration cards, domicile certificates, admit cards of board exams, among others; exempting senior citizens and migrants from physical appearance in hearings; and encouraging inclusion of wrongfully deleted or new voters through Form 6.