Kaliganj AJUP pick 3rd contestant to get tribunal clearance

Kolkata: A day ahead of the last date for filing nominations, Aam Janata Unnayan Party (JUP) candidate Kechhabuddin Sekh from Nadia's Kaliganj constituency got clearance from the appellate tribunal on April 8, making him the third case where names struck off the poll rolls were restored.Deleted during SIR adjudication for mismatched names and age gap with parents, the first three appeals — all by contesting candidates — in the tribunal went in favour of the appellants, restoring their voting rights and safeguarding their nominations.Earlier, Congress's Motab Shaikh from Farakka and Md Mottakin Alam from Ratua had their names cleared.Kechhabuddin's case, represented by advocate Firdous Samim, was heard and disposed of by former Justice Raghunath Ray. The tribunal relied on his valid passport and Aadhaar card.Kechhabuddin's name was recorded in the 2002 voter list wrongly as ‘Kecchmatali'. He affirmed in an affidavit that ‘Kecchmatali' and ‘Kechhabuddin' were the same person.The tribunal's order recorded that Kechhabuddin's documents clearly showed that he is a permanent resident of Nadia's Hat Gobindapur village. He holds a valid passport, issued on Sept 27, 2021 and valid till Sept 26, 2031. He also has a valid Aadhaar card, apart from a voter identity card. Kechhabuddin had four documents to prove he was a bona fide voter, yet his name was deleted following judicial scrutiny.The judicial officer adjudicating Alam's case said his father's name was different in the documents submitted and that his age gap with his parents was too large. The tribunal ordered that these could not be grounds for deleting him and restored his name on April 6.In Motab's case, Justice TS Sivagnanam — citing a Supreme Court order of Sept 8, 2025 — observed that Aadhaar card can be accepted as a supporting document. Though not a proof of citizenship, Aadhaar is "one of the documents enumerated for the purpose of establishing the identity of a person", it said. The tribunal also took note of his passport (issued in 2018), driving licence (in 2001), both of which showed his name as ‘Motab Shaikh', son of ‘Ejabul Shaikh'.