Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) said that Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who was served a hearing notice as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list, would not be required to visit the hearing centre, and that a hearing would be conducted at his ancestral residence in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
“A hearing notice was generated for Amartya Sen as his age difference with his parent was less than 15 according to the enumeration form. This needs to be clarified and hence a notice has been served,” a poll panel official in Bolpur said.
The booth-level officer (BLO), along with other poll panel officials, went to deliver the notice at his residence. It was received by Sen’s cousin who lives in the ancestral house of Sen in Bolpur near Pratichi.
“The age difference between Sen and his mother is around 19 years and six months. But the notice served to him states that the age difference is less than 15 years. They (poll panel) might have made some mistake. It is so inhuman that they are sending a notice to a figure like Sen,” Gitikantha Majumdar, a family friend of Sen, said.
The hearing of Sen, a non-resident Indian (NRI) presently living abroad, will be held at 12 noon on January 16, officials aware of the development said.
The vernacular letter, a copy of which HT has seen, said that Sen would have to produce documents listed by the EC to keep his name in the electoral roll. It also stated that the documents produced by Sen would be sent for examination.
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state has already slammed the poll panel. “I came to know that Amartya Sen has been sent a hearing notice. He was awarded the Nobel Prize. He carried India’s intellect and values onto the world stage. And yet today, even a figure of his stature is being humiliated by the BJP-controlled ECI,” TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said at a rally in Rampurhat on Tuesday.
BJP legislator and leader of the opposition in the assembly Suvendu Adhikari hit back saying, “There must have been some discrepancies. The EC won’t send him a notice unnecessarily. He should cooperate. He is more than 90 years old. The EC has provisions for those citizens who are above 85 years. The hearing of former minister Kanti Ganguly, who is also above 80 years, was held at his home. Sen may call the BLO at his residence.”
This came days after cricketer Mohammed Shami, a resident of Jadavpur in Kolkata, was called for a hearing on January 5. Shami, who was supposed to appear at the Katjunagar Swarnamayee Vidyapeeth High School in Kolkata’s ward number 93 on Monday, could not attend the hearing as he was not in the city.
The Election Commission published the draft electoral roll on December 16 after the first phase of the SIR, with the electorate dropping from 76.6 million to 70.8 million following the deletion of more than 5.8 million names.
The second phase, which began on December 27, involves hearings of 16.7 million electors under scrutiny, including 13.6 million flagged for logical discrepancies and 3.1 million whose records lack mapping.
On December 31, 2025, a TMC delegation met Kumar at the EC’s office in New Delhi, sparking a war of words between the political party and the poll panel over the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
The final electoral roll after the SIR will be published on February 14.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she is likely to move the Supreme Court against the “harassment” faced by people because of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.
On Saturday, Banerjee had written a four-page letter to chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar alleging that the SIR was flawed and that many may lose their right to vote as a result.
Meanwhile, Adhikari also wrote to the CEC, countering Banerjee’s claims. In his letter, he urged the poll body chief to continue the SIR of electoral rolls “undaunted, fortified by the unwavering support of the democratic masses”. Adhikari claimed that the chief minister’s call to halt the exercise was an “admission of defeat”.
