EC issues new guidelines on NID date-of-birth corrections

The Election Commission (EC) has issued new guidelines for correcting dates of birth on National Identity Cards (NIDs).

Under the new directive, applications to correct a date of birth based on a verifiable Junior School Certificate (JSC), Secondary School Certificate (SSC), or equivalent educational certificate can now be processed at the field level.

Upazila or thana election officers, senior district or district election officers, and assistant directors, deputy directors and directors of the NID Wing will have the authority to dispose of such applications, classified as Category ‘A’.

The directive was issued in a circular signed today (Thursday) by Md Saiful Islam, director (Operations) of the National Identity Registration Wing.

The circular states that the existing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) must be followed when accepting educational certificates and other required information and documents. It also makes it mandatory for officials to record the relevant reasons or notes in the Central Management System (CMS) when electronically approving or rejecting NID applications.

The EC has also issued specific instructions on monitoring the work of field-level officials. Regional election officers and additional regional election officers have been directed to regularly review the work completed by officials under their supervision.

As part of this monitoring process, at least three applications handled by each authorised officer must be randomly selected and checked every month to determine whether they were properly processed. A report must then be prepared in the prescribed format and sent to the internal account of the director (Operations).

The circular also reiterates that certain applications must be approved at a higher level.

Applications for date-of-birth correction based on certificates issued by the Bangladesh Open University, as well as applications seeking a complete change of the applicant’s own name and both parents’ names along with the date of birth, must be processed only at the director general level.

The circular further states that in cases involving a complete change to a citizen’s date of birth, own name and both parents’ names, a second correction in the same field will not be permitted.

The National Identity Registration Wing has asked all concerned officials to strictly follow the new instructions and take the necessary steps accordingly.