OBC certificates issued after 2010 not valid as identity documents during SIR hearings, clarifies ECI

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has clarified that Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010 — earlier scrapped by the Calcutta High Court — will not be treated as valid supporting identity documents during the ongoing hearing sessions on claims and objections to the draft electoral roll in the state.

These hearings form the second stage of the three-phase Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list in West Bengal.

The clarification follows the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao, on December 24, directing the ECI to state within seven days if such OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010 would be accepted as supporting documents during the SIR process.

According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, the ECI on Thursday clarified that under no circumstances will such OBC certificates issued by the state government be used as supporting identity documents.

The Commission has also made Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), District Magistrates (DMs), and District Electoral Officers (DEOs) accountable for ensuring strict compliance with this directive.

The West Bengal unit of the BJP approached Justice Rao’s bench in December seeking the court’s intervention in restricting the presentation of OBC certificates issued by the state after 2010 as supporting documents during the hearing session on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list, which was published on December 16.

At the end of the hearing in the matter on December 24, Justice Rao directed the ECI to give its clarification in the matter.

The petitioner’s counsel had pointed out that on May 22, 2025, the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha scrapped all OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010.

While delivering the verdict, the division bench also ruled that those certificates should not be used for any purpose in the future.

Hence, the petitioner’s counsel said that such cancelled OBC certificates should not be used as documents of identity proof in the second phase of the three-stage SIR in the state.

The ECI had specified 13 documents as documentary evidence of identity proof. These include Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and OBC certificates.

IANS