SIR Family Register Certificate: Family Register Certificate Not Valid for SIR, Election Commission Clarifies

SIR Family Register Certificate: The Election Commission has clarified that the Family Register Certificate currently being issued by the Telangana government cannot be accepted as a valid document for the Special Intensive Revision process.

According to the clarification, the newly issued Family Register Certificate is treated as a document similar to a ration card. Since a ration card is not included among the 12 documents approved by the Supreme Court for SIR verification, the certificate issued on its basis cannot be accepted.

However, there is an important exception. Family Register Certificates issued under the earlier system in the undivided Andhra Pradesh are eligible for consideration, provided they were issued following the prescribed procedure.

The issue came into focus after the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s office sought clarity from the Election Commission regarding the certificates being issued by the state government. The matter had also reached the court, while the validity of the document became a subject of political debate.

Under the SIR process, voters who receive notices from election officials will have to appear before the Electoral Registration Officer and submit one of the documents included in the approved list.

The draft electoral roll is scheduled to be published on August 17. Officials are expected to issue notices to voters whose details require verification, including those who could not be mapped with the SIR 2002 records.

Against this backdrop, the Telangana government issued Government Order 172 on July 25. The order instructed tahsildars to issue Family Register Certificates based on information available in ration cards.

The Election Commission has now questioned the procedure followed for issuing these new certificates. It said a Family Register Certificate should be issued only after officials conduct a field level inquiry and verify the relevant records.

The Commission made it clear that certificates issued without such verification, relying only on information contained in ration cards, cannot be treated as an independent proof for SIR purposes.

At the same time, certificates issued under the previous procedure before July 25 will continue to be considered, subject to the conditions specified by the Election Commission.

The clarification is significant for voters who may receive SIR notices in Telangana. Those called for verification will need to rely on documents included in the officially accepted list rather than assuming that a newly issued Family Register Certificate will be sufficient.

Officials are expected to follow the Election Commission’s latest instructions while processing documents submitted by voters during the verification exercise.