The Election Commission (ECI) of India has made it clear that the current Telangana Family Register Certificate is equivalent to a ration card and as a result will not be treated as a designated Special Intensive Revision designated document.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Telangana C. Sudharshan Reddy confirmed the development to The Hindu. “It is correct. The Family Certificate in not acceptable for SIR,” he said.
The ECI made a clear distinction in the mechanism for applying for and issuing a Family Member Certificate through a memo dated July 25, 2013, and the recent GO Ms No 172.
In the case of the former, the applicant would apply to the tahsildar, and the certificate would be issued by the tahsildar after verification. This process involved checking documents and conducting a local enquiry. In the case of the latter, the certificate was issued within two days and was based on information digitally extracted from Food Security Card or Ration Card data. This did not involve an independent verification procedure.
Against this backdrop, Advisor to the Telangana Government Mohammad Ali Shabbir said that he would seek a legal opinion on the subject.
In a statement issued to the media and reacting to the ECI’s clarification on the issue he stated the development required ‘careful legal examination’. All legally permissible options would be explored so as to ensure the inclusion of genuine voters, especially those who are poor and belong to weaker sections of society, and also to ensure they do not endure problems.
“Nobody is suggesting that a ration card by itself should conclusively establish citizenship. The issue is whether authentic government records relating to a person’s family, identity and residence can be given appropriate evidentiary value along with other material available to the electoral authorities,” Mr. Ali was quoted as saying.
After continued representations, including by Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi and Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society president Faheem Qureshi, and in light of other representations, the Telangana government had taken a decision to introduce the Family Certificate. A decision to this effect came on July 25 this year when the government issued GO Ms No 172.
Published – August 12, 2026 07:32 pm IST
