The Election Commission (EC) has issued fresh directives regarding corrections to the date of birth, personal name, and parents’ names on National Identity (NID) cards, while strictly banning the opportunity to make corrections to the same details for a second time.
Under the new guidelines, field-level officials have been empowered to resolve date of birth correction applications based on online-verifiable Junior School Certificate (JSC), Secondary School Certificate (SSC), equivalent, and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) education certificates.
The directives were issued on Wednesday in a circular signed by Md Saiful Islam, director (operations) of National Identity Registration Wing.
According to the circular, birth date correction applications supported by online-verifiable JSC, SSC, equivalent, and HSC certificates will be treated under “Category-Ka.”
These applications can be settled by the respective upazila or thana election officer, senior district or district election officer, and assistant director, deputy director, and director of NID Wing.
The circular stipulates that while receiving education certificates and other required documents, officials must strictly adhere to the existing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). It is also mandatory to include notes in CMS when electronically approving or rejecting any correction application.
To ensure proper oversight, regional election officers and additional regional election officers will monitor all activities performed by their subordinate officials.
They must randomly select and verify at least three resolved applications per settling officer every month to confirm whether they were processed correctly, and submit a report based on their findings.
Meanwhile, applications for date of birth corrections based on certificates from Open University must be resolved at director general (DG) level.
Any applications seeking a complete change of the applicant’s date of birth, personal name, and parents’ names must also be settled at director general level.
The circular explicitly clarified that a second correction cannot be made in cases involving a complete change of the date of birth, personal name, and parents’ names.
The EC has directed all concerned officials to take the necessary measures in line with the newly issued circular.
