The Calcutta High Court refused the Enforcement Directorate’s plea for an urgent hearing and change of judge in the I-PAC raid matter. TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee backed the court’s stand, saying judicial orders cannot be altered administratively.
The Calcutta High Court on Friday refused to accept the request made by the Enforcement Directorate for an urgent hearing in connection with the controversy surrounding its raid and search operations at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain.
The ED had approached the division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul after the matter could not be heard earlier in the day before the single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh.
The hearing before Justice Ghosh did not take place because there was heavy crowding inside the courtroom when the matter was called. After Justice Ghosh left the courtroom, the next date of hearing was fixed for January 14.
Following this, the ED moved the division bench seeking an urgent hearing before January 14. However, the High Court declined the request and made it clear that the case would be heard only on the date already fixed by the single-judge bench.
The Court also rejected the ED’s alternative request that the matter be transferred to any other single-judge bench if an early hearing before Justice Ghosh was not possible.
Initially, the ED made a verbal request before the division bench, but the Court asked the agency to file a written application. After the written plea was submitted, the bench refused to accept it, observing that since a judicial order had already been passed fixing the next date of hearing, the matter could not be altered through an administrative process.
Reacting to the ED’s move of sending a mail to the Acting Chief Justice seeking urgent listing and change of judge, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee said,
“This has rightly been done. The order which has been passed by the judge is a judicial order. Judicial order cannot be changed in an administrative way…Why ED has done this? Amit Shah thinks he has purchased the entire India. That is arrogance…”
The main petition before the High Court has been filed by the ED, in which it has accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misusing her constitutional position.
The agency has alleged that the Chief Minister created obstacles in the official functioning of ED officers during the raid and search operations carried out at the I-PAC office and Pratik Jain’s residence.
The ED has also sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and has made the Chief Minister a party to the case. In addition, the agency has requested an investigation into the role of senior police officials who were allegedly accompanying the Chief Minister when she reached the raid locations.
According to the ED, the officials reportedly left the premises after collecting certain paper files and electronic documents during the ongoing operations.
Two counter-petitions have also been filed in the case — one by Pratik Jain and the other by the Trinamool Congress. In its petition, the Trinamool Congress has alleged that since I-PAC is working as the party’s election strategy agency, the ED raids were conducted with the intention of seizing confidential documents related to the party’s poll planning for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections and allegedly sharing the same with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The High Court has now made it clear that the matter will be heard only on January 14 as scheduled, and no urgent intervention or change of bench will be permitted in the case.
Case Title:
ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS VS UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. WPA/602/2026
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