The hearing process under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in West Bengal will commence from December 27, with the Election Commission and the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) putting in place elaborate arrangements for verification of voters with discrepancies in their records.

Although the exercise was initially scheduled to begin on December 24, the start date has now been deferred by three days, officials said.

So far, around 10 lakh hearing notices have already been generated, while district magistrates have been instructed to ensure that printing of all notices is completed within the next two days.

In the first phase, notices for nearly 32 lakh voters will be prepared. Distribution of these notices has already begun in a phased manner across districts.

The hearings will initially focus on the 32 lakh “unmapped” voters whose details did not match with the 2002 Special Intensive Revision records but whose names appeared in the draft electoral roll.

There are 294 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), one for each Assembly constituency, who will conduct the hearings in coordination with district administrations.

An official from the Bengal CEO’s office clarified that the appearance of a voter’s name in the draft electoral roll does not automatically exempt them from scrutiny.

“This makes it clear that inclusion of name in the draft list does not mean that an elector will not be called for hearing,” the official said.

The venues for the hearings will be finalised by the EROs in consultation with the respective district magistrates.

In municipal areas, hearings will be held in government offices, while in rural areas they will take place at government establishments such as Block Development Officer (BDO) offices or other administrative buildings. However, hearings will not be conducted at gram panchayat offices.

Each hearing notice will be issued in duplicate, with one copy handed over to the elector and the other retained by the concerned Booth Level Officer (BLO) after obtaining the voter’s signature.

Hearings will be conducted at government offices including those of the District Electoral Officer, Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) or BDO.

In parallel, the Election Commission has issued notices for the appointment of around 4,000 micro-observers to oversee the process. These micro-observers will be trained by the Election Commission on December 24, ahead of the commencement of hearings.

According to officials, the CEO’s office has proposed to the Election Commission that electors aged above 85 years be allowed to undergo the hearing process at their residences.

Another proposal suggests permitting the presence of the concerned BLO during the hearing to facilitate verification.

Beyond the initial batch of unmapped voters, the screening process covers over 1.69 crore electors with logical discrepancies in their records.

A “reasonable number” of these voters will also be summoned for hearings in subsequent phases, an Election Commission official said.

During the hearing, electors will be required to submit documents to establish their Indian citizenship and eligibility as voters.

The Election Commission will accept 11 categories of documents, including identity cards of state or central government employees or pensioners, documents issued by post offices, banks, LIC or local authorities before 1987, birth certificates, passports, Madhyamik or other educational qualification certificates, residential certificates issued by state government organisations, forest rights certificates, caste certificates, the National Register of Citizens (only for Assam), family registers maintained by local administrations, and land or house allotment certificates issued by the government.

The notice, hearing and verification phase of the SIR will continue until February 7, 2026.

The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on February 14, marking the culmination of the extensive revision exercise aimed at ensuring accuracy and integrity of the voters’ list in the state.