New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (January 19) issued a set of directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that verification as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal is done without causing stress to the people.“Logical discrepancies” in documents submitted by individuals and the validity of Class 10 admit cards were among the issues on which the court issued directions to the poll body. The Supreme Court bench comprised Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Dipankar Datta and Joymalya Bagchi.The poll body was asked to accept Class 10 admit cards issued by the state board as part of the SIR process. The ECI had contended that only the pass certificate would be accepted, however, in West Bengal, the date of birth only appears on the admit card.“The West Bengal State Board of Education marks the date of birth in the admit card. Not in the pass certificate. If you insist only for the pass certificate, that will not bear the date of birth. For that you will have to allow the admit card,” Justice Datta said.The court has also directed the ECI to publish the list of individuals who have been issued notices citing “logical discrepancies”, including mismatches in parents’ names, low age gaps with parents, and cases where the number of children attributed to the cited parents is more than six, LiveLaw reported.Nearly 1.25 crore notices citing such discrepancies have been sent, the court noted, and said that all such people will be entitled to submit their papers by authorised agents, who can also be Booth Level Agents (BLAs). The court also noted petitioners’ concerns about having to travel hundreds of kms to respond to the notices and directed the ECI to set up offices at the Panchayat Bhavan/ Block level to ensure ease of process.The court also asked the ECI to provide people, whose documents are found to be unsatisfactory, an opportunity for a hearing, which can be attended by their authorised agent. Justice Bagchi also questioned why low age gaps between parents and children were being made a basis for such notices.“Why is it a logical discrepancy? How can a 15-year age gap between mother and son be a logical discrepancy? It is not as if we don’t have child marriages in the country,” Justice Bagchi said.The court also asked the state government to ensure adequate workforce for the ECI to complete the process.The court emphasised on the need for transparency in the process. “Some correction exercises can be taken, but it should be transparent,” CJI Kant said. “See the strain and stress going on for the ordinary people, over 1 crore people are given notices…do not create a third issue here, that’s all we are requesting,” Justice Bagchi added.