Kolkata: The fate of over 23 lakh voters, who were excluded from electoral rolls after SIR in Bengal, hangs in balance as tribunals to adjudicate appeals remained non-functional till Saturday. Monday is the last day for voters to take their decision in 152 constituencies where the first phase of voting took place. The tribunals are the last hope for these voters after their first appeal was rejected during the judicial review process.The first phase of elections is scheduled for April 23, with the deadline for submitting nominations ending at 3 pm on April 6. Under Election Commission rules, the voter list can be published till the last date for filing nominations. Therefore, the voter list of constituencies which will go to polls on April 23 will be frozen till 3 pm on Monday.According to a senior Election Commission official, as of Thursday, about 52 lakh of the more than 60 lakh cases marked as ‘pending’ had been disposed of. “More than 700 judicial officers have been appointed to dispose of 60,06,475 doubtful and pending cases marked ‘undertrial’ in the voter list. They began work on February 24 and around 52 lakh cases have been disposed of by April 2. 55% of the cases processed so far have been cleared, and those names have been added to the voter list. 45% of the rejected cases have been delisted, and they can appeal online or offline to the appellate tribunal within 15 days against the orders passed by judicial authorities,” an EC official said.Considering the rejection rate of 45%, so far 23.4 lakh persons have lost their voting rights in the adjudication process and are eligible to appeal to the Appellate Tribunal. However, the necessary infrastructure for retired judges – who are expected to preside over tribunal proceedings – has not yet been established. This has raised doubts over whether the decision process can begin within the stipulated time frame, raising concerns over the fate of 23.4 lakh voters.Although there is uncertainty over whether tribunals will be functional by Monday, the rush to government offices to file appeals continued on Saturday. However, many were turned away and asked to return with the documents already submitted during the enumeration phase of the SIR.On Friday, officials had cited “government holiday” and “other election-related duties” for not accepting the appeal. On Saturday, voters were reportedly told that their requests could not be processed as they had not brought supporting documents with the formal application.This comes after senior Election Commission officials had said last month that no additional documents would be required for those submitting offline appeals.Meanwhile, in a release on Saturday, the CEO office said that around 8,000 appeals under Section 24 of the Representation of the People Act were submitted to it, which were forwarded to the concerned district magistrates for necessary action.