Election Commission Rejects Telangana Family Register Certificate for Voter Verification

The Election Commission of India has clarified that a new Family Register Certificate introduced by the Telangana government cannot be used as a valid document for voter verification during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The decision, communicated in a letter dated August 11, 2026, to the state's Chief Electoral Officer, has sparked political controversy and raised questions about the role of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi in promoting the certificate.

The clarification centers on a government order issued on July 25, 2026, which established a new process for issuing Family Register Certificates through the MeeSeva platform. The Election Commission noted that unlike the older Family Member Certificate, which required verification by a Tahsildar, the new certificate is generated electronically using data from the Food Security Card database without an independent verification procedure. The Commission stated that because the certificate is equivalent to a ration card, which is not a designated document for the Special Intensive Revision, it cannot be accepted for verification. The Commission cited Supreme Court observations that a ration card is not...