The Calcutta High Court recently directed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Appellate Tribunal to expeditiously decide the appeal of a Ph.D. aspirant whose admission to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur had allegedly been stalled after his name was struck off the electoral roll.

Justice Krishna Rao observed that since the petitioner's admission to the Ph.D. programme was awaiting the outcome of the electoral roll dispute, the appeal warranted urgent consideration and requested the Tribunal to decide it within one week.

The Court was hearing a writ petition filed by Md. Ayan Nawaz seeking a direction upon the SIR Appellate Tribunal to dispose of his appeal against the deletion of his name from the voters' list.

According to the petitioner, he had secured admission to the Ph.D. programme in Physics at IIT Kanpur for the academic session 2026–2027. However, his admission process had been held up because his name had been deleted from the electoral roll and his appeal before the SIR Appellate Tribunal was still pending. He urged the High Court to direct the Tribunal to decide the appeal at the earliest so that he could complete the admission formalities.

After hearing the parties, Justice Rao noted that the petitioner's admission remained pending solely because of the pendency of the SIR appeal. Considering the urgency of the matter, the Court observed that the appeal required prompt adjudication.

Accordingly, the Court requested the Appellate Tribunal to consider and decide the petitioner's appeal "as early as possible preferably within a period of one week from the date of receipt of this order." With this direction, the writ petition was disposed of.

Case Title: Md. Ayan Nawaz v. Election Commission of India & Ors.

Case No.: WPA 13730 of 2026