Supreme Court of India has adjourned the ED plea alleging interference by Mamata Banerjee and state officials during I-PAC raids, with the matter now listed for detailed hearing on May 22 before the bench in next session.
The Supreme Court adjourned a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleging that former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other state officials interfered with its investigation and search operations conducted at the I-PAC Kolkata office and premises linked to co-founder Pratik Jain.
The matter was taken up briefly by a Bench of Justices P.K. Mishra and N.V. Anjaria before being deferred.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED through video conferencing, requested that the case be listed for hearing next week.
However, Justice P.K. Mishra remarked that it could be taken up in July.
Urging for an early hearing, the Solicitor General submitted,
“I am requesting for next week,” .
Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Maneka Guruswamy appeared for the State of West Bengal. During the hearing, the Solicitor General told the Court that counsel for the petitioner was available to argue, while the other side had already concluded its submissions.
He stated,
“Currently, Mr Raju is on his legs. He has to argue. The other side has finished,”
After brief exchanges, the Bench adjourned the matter and listed it for hearing on May 22.
Last month, SG Mehta had told the Bench that,
“The sitting Chief Minister has actively caused obstruction in investigation…Rule of Law ceases to operate when executive uses state machinery to obstruct investigation.”
Earlier, the Court had expressed sharp displeasure at allegations that Banerjee had interfered with an ongoing investigation, observing that such conduct puts democracy in peril.
The Bench had said,
“This is not a dispute between the State and the Union,”
It further observed that a Chief Minister of any State cannot enter the course of an investigation, interfere with it, and then insist that the issue be treated as a dispute between the State and the Union.
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The Bench noted that the situation was unprecedented and went beyond ordinary federal disagreements.
The Bench said,
“We never thought that in this country a day would come where a sitting Chief Minister would walk into the office where an investigating agency is probing a case,”
In an earlier part of the proceedings, the Bench had also asked pointed questions to the West Bengal government concerning its objection to the ED’s plea being maintainable.
The Court asked whether officers of the agency lose their fundamental rights merely because they are government officials.
The case relates to ED’s petitions against the West Bengal Chief Minister and certain state police officers, alleging obstruction during a search at the office of I-PAC, a political consultancy firm. The firm is associated with the All India Trinamool Congress.
The ED has also alleged interference in searches at the residence of I-PAC’s director, Prateek Jain.
Recently, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra told the Court that ED must explain how it was “weaponized” in the State. Responding sharply, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju said,
“It has not been weaponized, it has been terrorized..”.
In what the Court described as a shift in stance, Banerjee informed the Court that the ED had permitted her to retrieve devices and physical files during the search at I-PAC.
Earlier, On January 15, the Court had issued notice on petitions filed by the ED and its officers alleging interference by Banerjee and senior state police officials in a search conducted at the I-PAC office and at the residence of Prateek Jain.
Case Title: Directorate of Enforcement v. The State of West Bengal