Post-poll violence: Recall or modify NHRC probe order, Bengal govt urges HC

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has moved the Calcutta high court urging it to recall or modify its June 18 order directing the NHRC chairperson to form a committee to probe post-poll violence complaints and report back to the court, with details including that of offenders and officers who didn't act.
The state has also pleaded in court for remarks made against it to be "expunged" from the order. The matter is likely to be heard by a five-judge bench on Monday.
The petition by Bengal home secretary B P Gopalika says the state government should be given a chance to probe and report on the list of 3,423 complaints provided to HC by West Bengal Legal Services Authority (WBLSA) on June 10. The government further said that allegations that police superintendents didn't act on many such complaints needed to be verified.
In its petition, the state says it "did not get any opportunity to peruse the report or to look into the complaints mentioned in the report of the West Bengal Legal Services Authority and verify the allegations made in the complaints as referred to in such report and assist this hon'ble court." It adds that SP and police stations "have also not been given an opportunity to respond as to whether it had received the complaints and whether steps have been taken on such complaints". It futher said "before referring the matter" to NHRC, the state should have been provided a copy of the WBLSA report and its response taken.
The HC had on June 18 made some remarks against the state and its order even said the "state from the very beginning had been denying everything".