BREAKING| West Bengal SIR : Supreme Court To Seek Calcutta HC CJ's Report On Appellate Tribunals' Functioning

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will seek a report from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court today itself on the functioning of the appellate tribunals, which are constituted to hear the appeals filed against exclusions/inclusions in the electoral rolls of West Bengal after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

In an oral mention before the bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat submitted that the appellate tribunals are not functioning despite the orders of the Supreme Court. He claimed that the appellate tribunals are not allowing lawyers to represent parties, and was not accepting physical applications.

Last week, the Court had ordered that persons whose appeals against deletions are allowed by the appellate tribunals within two days before the date of polling (April 23 is the voting date for the first phase and April 29 for the second phase) must be allowed to vote.

Kamat submitted, "There is a practical difficulty; appellate tribunals are not functioning. Lawyers are not being allowed. They only take internet and computer- based applications. Citizens from thousands of kilometres, are not allowed representation. This court's order not being followed."

The Chief Justice expressed slight unhappiness over the repeated applications in the West Bengal SIR matter. "Unfortunately, some professional strategy from this side...Every day you people one after the other....," CJI Kant said.

Kamat submitted that the Supreme Court's directions are not being followed. He said that newspaper reports regarding the appellate tribunals have been produced.

"We will get a report from the Chief Justice today itself," CJI said.