The Supreme Court on Wednesday clarified that a Madhyamik (Class 10) admit card, when accompanied by the pass certificate, may be produced as a supplementary document for identity verification in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. The Court reiterated that such admit cards cannot be treated as standalone identity documents.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi passed the clarification after senior advocate D.S. Naidu mentioned the matter and raised concerns about whether admit cards could be accepted independently for identification.
The bench referred to its earlier order dated February 24, 2026 and clarified the scope of paragraph 3(iii)(c). It directed:
“Madhyamik (Class 10) admit cards may be submitted along with pass certificate for the purpose of birth certificate and purposes of parentage.”
The Court emphasised that the admit card is only a supplementary document and not a standalone proof of identity.
It further directed that:
“All documents mentioned in para 3(iii) of order dated February 24, 2026 which are not uploaded so far and received before February 15, shall be submitted by the Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers to the presiding judicial officers by tomorrow 5 PM.”
The clarification comes in the backdrop of the Court’s ongoing monitoring of the Special Intensive Revision exercise in West Bengal, where around 80 lakh claims and objections have been filed by voters facing potential deletion from the electoral rolls.
On Tuesday, the apex court had permitted the deployment of West Bengal civil judges, in addition to 250 district judges, and allowed the requisitioning of judicial officers from Jharkhand and Odisha to handle the volume of claims.
The Court took note of a February 22 communication from Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul stating that even with 250 district judges, the process would take around 80 days to complete.
The Court recorded that the SIR exercise involves scrutiny of “logical discrepancies” in progeny linking with the 2002 voter list, including:
- mismatch in the parent’s name, and
- age differences between a voter and the parent being less than 15 years or more than 50 years.
Observing the scale of the exercise and the February 28 deadline, the bench noted that even if each judicial officer were to decide 250 claims per day, the process would still take about 80 days.
It therefore:
- permitted the Calcutta High Court to deploy civil judges of senior and junior divisions with at least three years’ experience, and
- asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to request his counterparts in Jharkhand and Odisha to provide judicial officers of similar rank.
The matter forms part of the Supreme Court’s continuing oversight of the SIR process to ensure timely and structured adjudication of claims and objections relating to the electoral roll.
