The Supreme Court on Friday asked the 19 appellate tribunals in Bengal to conduct “out-of-turn” hearings of appeals from those excluded voters who “make out a case” for an urgent hearing.

It also asked 65 election officials, who had approached the top court after having their names excluded from the rolls, to go to the tribunals, instead.

Excluded voters from constituencies that vote in the second phase on April 29 can be included in the rolls if the tribunals clear them by April 27.

For any other issue arising out of the Bengal elections that requires judicial intervention, the apex court asked people to approach the Calcutta High Court chief justice on either the judicial or the administrative side. The Bengal chief justice can issue directives to the tribunals on the judicial as well as administrative side.

The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi expressed satisfaction that the first phase of the Bengal elections on Thursday had recorded a higher than 92 per cent turnout without much of a law-and-order problem.

Earlier, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for a group of excluded voters, had complained that the tribunals had so far dealt with only 139 appeals. Some 27 lakh excluded voters are eligible to appeal before the tribunals.

However, the bench refused to deal with the issue saying the matter could be raised before the tribunals by seeking urgent, “out-of-turn” hearings.

“See, as regards those who have been excluded and have filed their appeals, we will issue directions separately requesting the appellate tribunals to give out-of-turn hearings to those who make out a case for urgency,” it observed.

As for other “issues (that) keep arising on a day-to-day basis”, it directed the aggrieved to approach the Calcutta High Court chief justice.

The bench reaffirmed its earlier stand that the excluded voters need not be disheartened and that many of them would certainly get their names back on the voter list before future elections.

“These elections, perhaps, they can’t vote. But the more valuable right to remain on the rolls shall be preserved,” Justice Bagchi observed.

He quoted a Bengali proverb that roughly translates as: “When kings fight, the humble reed (ordinary people) losesits life.”

This seemed a dig at the acrimony seen during the SIR between the Trinamool Congress on one side and the BJP and the Election Commission on the other.

Senior advocate M.R. Shamshad, appearing for the 65 officials excluded from the rolls but put on election duty, underlined the irony of the situation.

“The persons today who are conducting the elections cannot vote! Even their duty roster orders mention their EPIC (election photo identity card) numbers, which have now been deleted from the voter list,” Shamshad said, pleading that directions be passed to allow them to vote.

Justice Kant, however, said these election officials must approach the tribunals.

After Kalyan referred to Thursday’s high turnout in Bengal, Justice Kant orally observed: “I was personally very happy to see the huge percentage of voting. People in the country need to participate wholeheartedly in elections.”

He added: “It is only when people realise their power in a democracy… and follow the rule of law (that) they will not indulge in any violence. People know that their strength lies in a democratic set-up.”

Justice Bagchi stressed that “there was no violence reported from the state” despite the heavy polling.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta said that barring a few minor incidents, the polling was peaceful. He lauded the security personnel.