NEW DELHI: Having updated the appellate tribunal portal for West Bengal around two weeks back to enable judges to rely on documents beyond the 13 listed in SIR order, the Election Commission (EC) will, within this week, also replace Aadhaar-authenticated e-sign with digital signature certificate (DSC), as a mandatory requirement for the judges to login and upload their orders.According to sources in the commission, two more requests from SIR tribunal judges have been accepted and operationalised. The appellate tribunals platform now enable the judges 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 the Aadhaar authentication screen introduced in September this year.The 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 that the commission had, nearly two weeks back, tweaked its dedicated portal for the tribunals, adding a 14th category to the list of eligible documents, namely “any other document”. This now allows the judges’ office to upload a document that the judge, based on his discretion, deems apt to determine a person’s eligibility to be included in the electoral roll; even the electoral registration officer or the elector can upload this document on the portal, as per sources.All SIR orders issued by EC thus far specifically state that the list of 13 documents is “only indicative (not exhaustive)”.“The DSC-based access for the tribunal judges is likely to be cleared before the end of this week, with the pen-drive containing the digital signatures under process,” shared an EC officer.TOI has further learnt that EC has already instructed the West Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) to work on the tribunal judges’ demand for relocation of their offices to a more “convenient and central” location. “It is a work in progress and alternative locations are being explored in consultation with the judges,” said a commission official.The tribunals are hearing nearly lakhs of appeals against orders passed by Calcutta High Court–appointed judicial officers in West Bengal regarding inclusions and exclusions from the electoral roll.E-sign for SIR tribunal judges soon, can upload bulk orders on portal | India Newstimesofindia.indiatimes.comupdate the aboe onefile this one-Bharti Jain/TNNNew Delhi: The Centre has notified three new foreigners regional registration offices (FRROs) — in Bhubaneswar, Kohima, Agartala, taking the total number of such offices to 20 in the country.Stating that the number of foreign visitors arriving for tourism, medical and educational purposes has witnessed a substantial rise, the home ministry in a statement said there is need to appoint FRROs in each state. “This will ensure service accessibility, enhance regulatory compliance and promote India as an attractive destination,” it said while reiterating home minister Amit Shah’s call for establishing FRROs in all state capitals by 2027.The FRRO monitors compliance with Indian immigration laws, handles cases of overstay and visa violations, and coordinates legal action or penalties where necessary.In the past couple of years, five new FRROs have become operational in Jaipur, Chandigarh, Aizawl (Mizoram), Amravati (Andhra Pradesh) and Guwahati.
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“Recently, three new FRRO offices, namely Kohima (Nagaland), Agartala (Tripura) and Bhubaneshwar (Odisha), have been notified. Earlier, Kohima and Agartala were under the jurisdiction of FRRO, Kolkata, whereas Bhubaneshwar was under the jurisdiction of FRRO, Hyderabad,” shared the MHA.The government is considering further increasing the FRRO network in the remaining states, namely Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya.The 20 FRROs across the country are located at Ahmedabad, Amravati, Amritsar, Aizawl, Agartala, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kohima, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai and Trivandrum,” the statement read.The expansion of the FRRO office network has a dual focus on facilitating foreigners’ legitimate travel and stay in India and ensuring effective implementation of immigration laws and security requirements.