The Election Commission of India (ECI) Thursday started a thorough scrutiny of documents submitted during the hearing phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

Dubbed ‘Super Checking’ by ECI officials, several teams have been formed to evaluate whether the voter list revision process was followed correctly and if any document not approved by the Commission was accepted during the hearings. Each team will have one roll observer and 25 micro observers.

ECI sources said several anomalies have come to the attention of the Commission on the very first day of the ‘Super Checking’ itself.

“After verifying all documents during ‘Super Checking’, if it is proven that someone has submitted documents not mentioned in the approved list of documents, then the voter concerned will be treated as invalid, and their name will be struck off the final SIR list,” said an ECI source.

The source further said several complaints alleging irregularities regarding the uploading of documents during the SIR hearing process have been raised with ECI. Special observers have submitted reports identifying several instances of deliberate wrongdoings, and naming the electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) responsible for them.

Explaining the irregularities, the ECI source said, “Observers have noticed that in case of a voter who appeared in the hearing, passport was mentioned as the document verified, but pictures of Aadhaar card and PAN card were uploaded. But no passport photo has been uploaded. Such mistakes are not mere carelessness.”

The ECI earlier deputed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as the special roll observer for the state. Under him, roll observers and more than 7,000 micro observers were deployed to oversee the hearing process.

Meanwhile, Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar arrived in Bengal Thursday. He will stay in the state for three days. During this time, Kumar and his team will visit several districts in both North Bengal and South Bengal to oversee the SIR process.