ECI says ‘family register’ ok. Panic, cancelled
No, there’s no July 25 ban in the rulebook. Telangana’s new Family Register Certificate can be produced in SIR hearings — and will be checked like everything else.
The Family Register certificate can be produced at SIR hearings, subject to verification.
The Election Commission’s own SIR instructions list a “Family Register, prepared by State/Local authorities” as an acceptable document. There is no cut-off date in that order, and nothing that voids Telangana’s new MeeSeva version after July 25. According to the Telangana CEO’s on-record clarification, the certificate will be accepted at SIR hearings — subject to verification by the Electoral Registration Officer. In other words: bring it, expect questions, and be ready with supporting records.
What changed on July 25 was on the state side: a Telangana Revenue Department order created an electronic Family Register and a MeeSeva certificate built off the Food Security Card database. That makes it easier for residents to show family composition and dates of birth in one place; it does not magically settle citizenship or voter eligibility on its own, and the CEO isn’t pretending it does.
So the document exists, the ECI framework already accommodates a state-issued family register, and the CEO says it can be produced — with verification. The BJP’s favourite “illegal vote bank” line will have to find a new prop; the rulebook didn’t give them this one.