Hearing first, wedding later.

A young man, dressed in wedding regalia, stood in queue for his verification hearing in Diamond Harbour on Tuesday, highlighting the anxiety and compulsion faced by electors summoned by the Election Commission to safeguard their names on the voter list.

The groom, Anowar Hossain Khan, 28, a resident of Bolsiddhi-Kalinagar II gram panchayat under Diamond Harbour-I block, was not alone in the queue.

As many as 38 members of his wedding party accompanied him to the block development office, clutching folders of documents to establish their identities after discrepancies were flagged against their names in the draft electoral rolls.

The unusual sight was in sharp contrast to the celebrations that were meant to mark one of the most important days of Anowar’s life.

While Anowar attended the hearing, his bride waited a few kilometres away along with her family members, as preparations for the wedding came to an abrupt halt.

Nearly 100 neighbours and relatives had been scheduled to join the groom’s procession later in the afternoon, but those plans were thrown into disarray when, just hours before the ceremony, Anowar and the 38 others received urgent notices directing them to appear for a hearing on the same day.

The notices summoned them to the BDO office for verification of documents. With the 2026 Assembly elections approaching and the looming risk of deletion from the electoral rolls, Anowar chose not to skip the hearing despite the disruption it caused to his wedding arrangements.

Wearing a traditional sherwani, sehra and jewellery, Anowar arrived at the hearing centre directly on his way to the wedding venue.

“Today was a very important day in my life. Nevertheless, I received the summons for the SIR hearing. I was worried that if I did not show up, the damage would be permanent. I had no choice but to come here first, which created major problems in the execution of my wedding ceremony,” he told reporters as he waited in the queue.

Officials at the hearing centre, upon learning of his wedding scheduled for the day, cooperated to expedite the process.

The groom's family members and some residents expressed anger over what they described as unnecessary harassment.

Moyallem Laskar, a relative of the groom, said: “This was sheer harassment, as there were trivial discrepancies in the names.”

Rajat Bhandari, a local Trinamool Congress leader and the deputy chief of Bolsiddhi-Kalinagar II gram panchayat, said the episode reflected the pressure ordinary people faced due to the SIR process.

“Anowar Hossain Khan’s case shows how stressed people are, as he was forced to prioritise the hearing over his wedding. The BJP should be blamed for such harassment, as it has conspired to harass people who mainly belong to the minority community,” he said.

After a wait of nearly two hours, Anowar’s documents were verified, and he was allowed to leave. He eventually tied the knot three hours behind schedule, turning his wedding day into an extraordinary reminder of the coexistence of a personal milestone and administrative processes.