Karnataka's PRC drive faces uncertainty as EC yet to rule on document's validity

With the enumeration phase of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) set to end on Monday, August 17, the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has not yet indicated whether the Permanent Residential Certificate (PRC) – a document that the Election Commission of India (ECI) itself lists as an indicative document – will actually be accepted in the State.

The issue is particularly significant for voters flagged for logical discrepancies in their enumeration forms and for more than 28 lakh unmapped voters who could not find their or their families' details in the 2002 base electoral roll. Following the release of the draft electoral roll, these voters will be asked to submit one of the 11 documents specified by the ECI.

Acknowledging that many voters do not possess any of the 11 documents, the State government had launched a drive to issue PRCs and caste certificates at the doorstep. However, as the enumeration deadline approaches, the election machinery has not made clear whether these certificates will pass muster.

Karnataka CEO V. Anbu Kumar said he would provide clarity over PRCs “later”. When it was pointed out that the PRC is one of the valid documents mentioned in the ECI's list of accepted indicative documents, the CEO said he “cannot comment on individual document cases”.

The CEO's response suggests that PRCs could perhaps be scrutinised individually. Even previously, State election officials, including the CEO, had refused to categorically state how PRCs would be treated in Karnataka.

Notably, during the SIR in West Bengal, the ECI – after political intervention – agreed to accept PRCs that strictly conformed to specific State government orders, specifically the 1999 framework, and underwent independent verification by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), instead of treating all PRCs alike.

In a similar vein, the Telangana government had ordered officials to issue Family Register Certificates (FRCs). Recently, however, the Telangana CEO rejected those documents. According to the ECI, the FRC is different from the Family Member Certificate (FMC) issued by the State, because it was based on information that had been digitally extracted from ration card data.

The Telangana government order issued on July 25, in the midst of the SIR process there, said the FRC was launched with a view to facilitating the delivery of services, ensuring uniformity in the verification of family particulars, and providing a readily accessible record.

While the Telangana government has said it will represent to the EC to reconsider its rejection of FRCs, pointing out that it could deprive a large section of people of their voting rights and put their names at risk of deletion from the SIR, the Congress government in Karnataka has so far been silent on the issue.

Speaking to The Hindu, Booth Level Agents (BLAs) as well as senior Congress members involved in the vigilance teams maintained that they would ensure every eligible person gets a PRC. There remains, however, no clarity over what happens if the Election Commission ultimately decides to subject those very certificates to conditions and verification, as it did in West Bengal.