New Delhi/Calcutta, April 24: The Supreme Court has asked Calcutta High Court to send records of the Nandigram firing cases pending before it.

The request came after a person sought a judicial probe into the police firing that allegedly killed 14 villagers protesting against land acquisition.

On March 15, a day after the firing, the division bench of high court Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice P.C. Ghosh ordered a CBI probe into the incident. The same day, the court admitted nine petitions seeking its intervention.

Besides these 10 — the one initiated by the court and the nine others — another petition demanding compensation for the victims and their kin was admitted later.

The order by the Supreme Court Registry was issued on the direction of Justice G.P. Mathur, who heads the PIL (public interest litigation) cell, which scrutinises letters that could be treated as PILs.

In a 1984 order, the apex court had said that when it was for the rights of poor, disabled or the ignorant, even a letter or a telegram could be treated as a petition.

After scrutinising a letter, the PIL cell places it before the chief justice, who decides whether the court should entertain it.