Politics1 min read

EC eases Bengal SIR rules: E-sign for tribunal judges, can upload bulk orders on portal

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The Election Commission is introducing digital signature certificates to replace an Aadhaar-based authentication screen that had caused tribunal judges to halt order uploads. Appellate authorities can now process decisions in bulk and preserve drafts on the updated portal prior to formal issuance. The Commission has also instructed the state's Chief Electoral Officer to evaluate judicial requests for relocating tribunal offices to a more central site. Additionally, officials and electors may now submit supplemental records beyond the original 13 categories under a newly created 14th document classification.

Key points

  • Transitioning to digital signature certificates resolves judge reservations that previous…: Transitioning to digital signature certificates resolves judge reservations that previously caused a month-long order backlog.
  • Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer must handle requests from appellate judges seeking more…: Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer must handle requests from appellate judges seeking more centrally located tribunal offices.
  • A 14th document option gives judges discretion to accept additional records when deciding…: A 14th document option gives judges discretion to accept additional records when deciding voter roll eligibility.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

EC eases SIR tribunal procedures in Bengal, allowing bulk order uploads, draft saving and additional documents, while planning digital signature-based login for judges

NEW DELHI: Having updated the appellate tribunal portal for Bengal around two weeks back to enable judges to rely on documents beyond the 13 listed in SIR order, Election Commission will, within this week, also replace Aadhaar-authenticated e-sign with digital signature certificate as a mandatory requirement for judges to login and upload their orders.According to sources in EC, two more requests from SIR tribunal judges have been accepted and operationalised. The appellate tribunals platform now enables them to upload their orders in bulk, rather than one at a time. This is expected to save effort and time, given that a large number of orders passed by the tribunals in over a month were not uploaded due to the judges' reservations about Aadhaar authentication screen introduced in Sept this year.ECINET portal would also allow judges to save their orders as drafts, enabling them to make changes before issuing the final order.Sources told TOI EC had, nearly two weeks…

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