Hearing process for SIR completed, technical work begins

Out of the 4,27,980 people summoned for hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Burdwan district, 11,173 voters remained absent, while 2,118 did not receive hearing notices from the Election Commission of India (ECI) as the final day of hearings concluded on Saturday.

The hearing process under the SIR covered all nine Assembly constituencies in the district and concluded on Saturday. Officials have now begun technical work on a war footing. The final electoral roll will be prepared after scrutiny of documents submitted by voters who attended the hearings and is scheduled to be published on 28 February.

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However, verification of documents may take considerable time. Questions remain regarding the status of voters whose documents are not verified within the stipulated deadline. No specific guidelines have yet been issued on how such cases will be handled.

According to the draft electoral roll published on 16 December 2025, of the total 20,20,966 voters in West Burdwan district, 4,27,980 were issued notices to appear for SIR hearings. These comprised two categories: unmapped voters ~ those who did not submit SIR forms ~ and voters with logical discrepancies in their details.

The number of unmapped voters stood at 1,45,706, while those with logical discrepancies numbered 2,82,232.

“Out of those called for hearing, 11,173 voters remained absent, and 2,118 did not receive notices as they were not found at their registered addresses,” said S Ponnamballam, District Election Officer (DEO) and District Magistrate of West Burdwan.

Major challenge in document verification

A senior district official stated that documents submitted during the hearings are being collected and verified, and names will be included in the final roll only after successful verification.

In several cases, documents have been sent to other states for authentication. For instance, if a voter has submitted a board examination certificate issued by another state, it must be verified by the respective state board office before further action is taken.

For this purpose, documents are first sent to the concerned state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) offices, which then forward them to the relevant district authorities. The process moves forward only after confirmation is received.

Given the complexity of the procedure, officials are uncertain whether all responses will be received within the prescribed timeframe. No clear directive has been issued on whether the names of voters whose documents remain unverified by the deadline will be retained in the electoral roll.

At present, documents of 1,40,631 voters in West Burdwan district are still under verification.

The nine Assembly constituencies in the district are Durgapur East, Durgapur West, Pandaveswar, Jamuria, Raniganj, Barabani, Kulti, Asansol North and Asansol South.