Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in West Bengal will start issuing hearing notices from Thursday as part of the next phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an official said.
At the initial stage, notices are expected to be sent to around 32 lakh “unmapped voters” — individuals whose details could not be linked with the 2002 SIR data but whose names feature in the draft electoral rolls for 2026, he said.
“Being included in the draft electoral rolls does not necessarily mean that a voter will not be called for a hearing, though the process in their case may be comparatively simpler. The EROs will begin issuing hearing notices from the morning of December 18,” the official said on Wednesday.
According to him, two copies of the hearing notice will be issued. “One copy will be handed over to the voter concerned, while the other will be retained by the Booth Level Officer after obtaining the voter’s signature. Voters will be given some time after receiving the notice to appear for the hearing, which is likely to begin soon,” he said.
The hearings will be held at government offices, including those of district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates and block development officers, he said.
The official added that the screening of cases involving logical discrepancies is currently underway, and therefore the final number of voters who will receive hearing notices is yet to be determined.
“Officials are advising voters to keep ready the 11 documents specified by the Election Commission for verification,” he said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal’s Special Roll Observer, Subrata Gupta, is likely to visit north Bengal ahead of Christmas to review the progress of the SIR exercise, another official said.
“The visit is aimed at assessing the progress and implementation of the SIR in the region,” he said.