The Supreme Court on Wednesday clarified that Madhyamik (Class X exams of the West Bengal education board) admit card can be produced along with the pass certificate as supplementary documentation for verification in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Senior advocate D.S. Naidu, appearing on behalf of the Election Commission before the bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi, expressed concern over allowing the Madhyamik card as a document for verification.

“Judges from West Bengal are fully aware of the data available in Madhyamik admit card. That is why we said it will help the Election Commission and everyone verifying the document. Pass certificate does give the date of birth or father’s name,” Justice Joymalya Bagchi told Naidu.

The counsel for the commission argued that the admit card cannot be a standalone document like Aadhaar, but a supporting one.

“The Madhyamik pass certificate is one of the documents. We have said that the Madhyamik admit card will supplement it,” Justice Bagchi said.

The apex court said it had directed that the admit card will only be a supplementary document.

In the order, CJI Kant said: “All documents mentioned in para 3 (iii) of order dated February 24, which are not uploaded so far and received before February 15, shall be submitted by the Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers to the presiding judicial officers by tomorrow 5pm.”

The order stated: “Similarly, para 3 (iii) (c) is clarified to the effect that Madhyamik admit cards may be submitted along with pass certificate for the purpose of birth certificate and purposes of parentage.”

On Tuesday, the apex court had told Calcutta High Court chief justice to enlist if necessary judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha to ensure Bengal’s final draft rolls can be published by the deadline of February 28.