Tribunals set to take off after Bengal’s voter list freeze

KOLKATA: The 19 appellate tribunals are set to hear appeals for inclusion or exclusion of electors from Monday at Joka's Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee National Institute of Water and Sanitation after 23 days of their formation by the EC and three days after the second-phase poll electoral list was frozen.

The tribunals have retired judges, including Justice T S Sivagnanam, former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court; Justice Manjula Chellur, former Chief Justice of Bombay High Court; and Justice Biswajit Basu, among others. Although their formation was notified by ECI on March 20 following the SC order on March 10, the tribunals till date have only heard and disposed of four appeals which were mentioned at the apex court.




On Sunday, a team of retired judges, chief secretary Dushyant Nariala and Chief Justice Sujoy Paul visited the institute to inspect the arrangements made for the tribunals to function. According to sources, 119 computers have been set up and 200 micro-observers will be part of the adjudicating process. "The retired judges can start working from Monday, if they wish," the official stated.

Each judge will be assisted by four to five staff members, who already underwent training on Friday on how to scrutinise documents and what things they will have to do. Basic furniture like tables and chairs have been placed in the office of the tribunals, and some 100-odd computers have also been taken on rent, a senior official said.

Even on Sunday, as CJ went to inspect the arrangements, around five to six people came to the entrance enquiring about the tribunal. They had all appealed after coming to know that their names were deleted but are yet to get a call for tribunal hearing. "When I am asking my BLO, they are clueless. We are confused.

We filed the appeal online but no intimation of hearing was given. Poll date is drawing close, will we get to vote if cleared? Nothing is clear," 37-year-old Suvankar Das, a resident of Haridevpur, told TOI. Among various documents, he also submitted passport. His name and his mother's name, Lily Das, were deleted while his father and wife managed to clear the SIR scrutiny. The reason for Suvankar's deletion is age gap with grandfather, who died in 1998.

"I was born in Behala East. I studied here and got married here. I voted here. Suddenly, some SIR is telling me that I am not a voter," Lily said while sitting at a tent outside the institute for nearly two hours before returning unheard.

The tribunals have been formed to hear appeals from the voters whose names were rejected by the judicial officers during the adjudication process. A little over 27 lakh names out of 60 lakh "under adjudication" cases have been excluded from the supplementary lists, and they can appeal to the tribunals.

On Tuesday, a three-member judges' committee was constituted by Calcutta HC as directed by the SC to draft SOP for the tribunals' operations. The committee has former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court TS Sivagnanam, Justice Pradipta Roy and Justice Pranab Kumar Deb.

Ever since the Joka institute has been selected as a location for tribunal functioning, people have been flocking the campus to get their grievances heard.
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