Post-poll violence: HC adjourns hearing

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of the post-poll violence case till August 3.

Last week, the five- judge Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice I P Mukerji, Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Subrata Talukdar, granted state time till July 31 to file supplementary affidavit to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report in connection with post-poll violence.

On Monday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of the Bengal government, during the hearing before the Bench submitted: "The Court's order merely said the Committee will compile all complaints and submit before the Court."

"Your Lordships are entrusting powers to the Committee which even the Commission does not have under the Act? The Report has castigated every state machinery . I am sure the Bench did not require the Committee to submit such a report if the Committee was only a fact finding committee," he argued.

"The Committee did not just collate information and submit before the Court. Look at what the report says," argued Senior Advocate Sibal, referring to the Supreme Court case of Bandhua Mukti Morcha, wherein the apex court had only asked the fact finding committee to collate information regarding allegations of bonded labour.