SIR in Bengal: Voters furnishing forged documents to face strong legal action, says ECI

Kolkata, Dec 9 Voters furnishing forged identity or other related documents to have their names retained in the voter list during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal will be subjected to strong legal action, which might extend to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, the Election Commission of India (ECI) affirmed on Tuesday.

According to a note issued from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal on Tuesday, in case any voter’s forged identify or other related legal documents are furnished for retaining the names in the voters’ list, the voter concerned might be subjected up to seven years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 337 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Section 337 of the BNS criminalises the forgery of documents such as court records, public registers (like birth or marriage records), and government-issued identity documents (like Aadhaar cards).

This Section also covers the forgery of other official documents, like public servant certificates or powers of attorney. Those convicted of this offence face a punishment of imprisonment for up to seven years and a fine.

An insider from the CEO’s office said that the note had been issued after several incidents surfaced where illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators used forged documents showing local senior citizens as their parents to get their names included in the voter list and subsequently to retain the names in the electoral roll.

“The commission had also decided to extensively use Artificial Intelligence to identify the forged documents,” the CEO’s office insider said.

Already, ECI has assigned the five additional special roll observers to review the ongoing SIR in West Bengal to pinpoint instances of "deliberate" data entry errors in the second stage of the exercise that will start after the publication of the draft voters' list on December 16.

Besides identifying specific and deliberate data entry errors, the task of the five additional special roll observers will also be to pinpoint "people within the system" responsible for such deliberate errors and recommend disciplinary action against them.

The second stage of the SIR exercise, starting after December 16, will involve filing claims and objections, and the notice phase -- which is issuance, hearing, verification, and decision on enumeration forms and disposal of claims and objections -- to be done concurrently by the EROs.

After the second stage is over, the third and final stage, which is the publication of the final electoral roll, will be on February 14. Soon after the publication of the final electoral roll, the ECI is expected to announce the dates for the crucial Assembly elections in the state.

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