“We will get a report from the Chief Justice today itself,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said after senior advocate Devadatt Kamat told the court that the appellate tribunals are not functioning despite the top court’s orders. The lawyer alleged that the tribunals are not allowing lawyers to represent parties and not accepting physical applications.
Last week, the top court had ordered that voters who are cleared by appellate tribunals for inclusion in electoral rolls at least two days before the elections will be entitled to vote in the West Bengal assembly elections. Speaking for the division bench that also included Justice Joymalya Bagchi, CJI Kant verbally expressed unhappiness over repeated applications in the West Bengal SIR case. Elections in West Bengal are scheduled to be held on April 23 and April 29. Hence, those who are cleared by appellate tribunals on or before April 21 or April 27, as the case may be, will be entitled to vote in the upcoming elections.
In a related development, the top court refused to entertain an oral plea made against the addition of nearly 700,000 new voters in West Bengal using Form 6 after SIR. An oral mention to this effect was made by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy before a bench headed by CJI Kant. In response, the CJI said the court cannot entertain a matter like this, unless a plea challenging an order is filed. “You challenge something, we will entertain,” the CJI said.
