Bengal SIR: SC to seek report from Calcutta High Court on functioning of tribunals

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will ask the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court to submit a report on the same day amid allegations that the appellate tribunals set up to hear appeals in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal were not functioning, PTI reported.

Advocate Devadatt Kamat cited reports to submit before the bench that the appellate tribunals “are not functioning”, The Indian Express reported.

The lawyer is representing a group of persons whose names had been removed from the voter list during the exercise and who had challenged the decision before the tribunals.

“Lawyers are not being allowed,” PTI quoted Kamat as having told the court. “They are only taking internet and computer-based applications.”

Chief Justice Surya Kant expressed displeasure that matters related to the revision exercise in Bengal were being mentioned before the court almost every day, the news agency reported.

Kamat then said that the orders passed by the court were not being followed.

He filed an application seeking that the hearings be expedited so that the names of the petitioners could appear on the supplementary list if their appeals are upheld.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to publish a supplementary electoral roll in West Bengal to include voters whose appeals against deletions have been accepted by...

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