West Bengal Post-Poll Violence - Persons Prevented From Returning To Homes May Lodge Complaint With Legal Services Authority : Calcutta High Court

A 5-Judges Bench of the Calcutta High Court has ordered that any person in West Bengal, who is being prevented from returning to his/her home on account of West Bengal post poll violence, may lodge a complaint with the State Legal Services Authority. The Court said that such people will be at liberty to send their complaints to the official Email ID of the authority. It further ordered that a composite complaint may be filed by lawyers appearing in the matter, on behalf of such people who do not have access to technology or are unable to read/write. The order has been passed by a Bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar on a clutch of petitions alleging hundreds of persons got displaced due to the violence and that they are now unable to return to their homes due to fear of backlash. "First priority of this Court is to ensure that displaced people are rehabilitated to their homes," ACJ Bindal remarked during the hearing. State Should Ensure That Victims Of West Bengal Post-Poll Violence Can Go Back To Homes : Calcutta High Court He also enquired from Advocate General Kishore Dutta, appearing for the State, regarding news reports of people of West Bengal having approached the Gauhati High Court as they were forced to leave their houses and flee to Assam. In its previous direction, the Court had constituted a committee comprising of members nominated by NHRC, SHRC & SLSA to coordinate rehabilitation of displaced persons of Entally constituency. The Committee has submitted its report which indicates that many people have been rehabilitated back to their homes. However, Advocate Priyanka Tiberwal today informed the Bench that people from other districts have also contacted her and the issue is rampant throughout the State. "We direct that any one in West Bengal, who is not being allowed to go back to their home allegedly on account of post poll violence will be at liberty to launch a complaint on the website of WB State Legal Services Authority. Complaints may be sent to the official email id of the authority. Other displaced persons will also be at liberty to send copy of their complaint at official email of WB State Legal Services Authority. On receipt of such grievance, the competent authority shall take necessary steps for rehabilitation of such persons and report to this Court," the Court ordered. Senior Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya alleged that the rehabilitated population is now being threatened by some Police officials because they approached the Court. "I don't want to make this adversarial. The AG may please look into this," Bhattacharya urged. The matter is now fixed for hearing on Monday, June 7. Read full updates here.

West Bengal Post-Poll Violence - Persons Prevented From Returning To Homes May Lodge Complaint With Legal Services Authority : Calcutta High Court

Akshita Saxena

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