Kolkata: More than a month has passed since the Calcutta High Court requested the SIR appellate tribunal to dispose of IIT Kanpur PhD aspirant’s plea to restore his name on the voter list, preferably within a week. But Md Ayan Nawaz (25) from Murshidabad still continued to wait for his turn for a hearing and further delay may impede his PhD enrolment.Ayan, a resident of Debipur in Murshidabad and a voter of Suti assembly constituency, urgently needs his name to be restored on the voter list to get his other backward classes-non creamy layer (OBC-NCL) certificate.“The appellate tribunal is requested to consider the case of the petitioner (Ayan) as early as possible preferably within a period of one week from the date of receipt of this order,” the single bench of Calcutta High Court Justice Krishna Rao had on June 25 directed. But on Monday, Ayan said his appeal was still pending. “My documents verification for PhD enrolment is in Oct. When I approached the district authority for the OBC-NCL certificate, I was told I would need my EPIC number. Names of my two brothers and me were deleted in SIR. I filed an appeal in April and filed a case in the HC in June. Despite the ‘one week’ order, I have not been heard yet. My career will be in jeopardy if I fail to get the documents,” Ayan said.Ayan was selected for PhD in physics at IIT Kanpur for 2026-27 on May 25. He was awarded a financial “assistantship” of Rs 37,000 a month.Ayan’s name was on the 2025 electoral roll but was placed “under adjudication” after SIR. The names of his parents, Md Nowsad Ali and Aktara Khatun, were on both 2002 and 2026 lists and one of his brothers, Asmaul Nawa, also made it to the new voters’ list. But Ayan, his two other brothers, Jahidul and Obaidul, were deleted. “I am obviously anxious. If this doesn’t work out in the next two months, I will be in a tough spot. I have all the documents. If the (SIR appellate) tribunal sees my documents once, I am sure my name will be restored. I hope it gets cleared this month,” he said.
