Supreme Court on Wednesday reprimanded West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee while hearing the I-PAC raid case. The apex court expressed strong displeasure over Mamata's presence at the I-PAC office while the Enforcement Directorate raid was underway.
A bench comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and NV Anjaria, while hearing the ED's petition, said that her presence at the raid site was not a "happy situation" and that the ED can't be left without remedy.
"What if tomorrow, some other Chief Minister barges into such a raid? Can the ED be left without remedy? In its plea, the central probe agency has claimed that CM Mamata entered the house of the I-PAC chief of election consultant, Prateek Jain, while the raid was underway and walked out with a laptop, phone and several documents.
The ED called it a "gross abuse of power" and demanded a case be filed against her and the officials who had accompanied her.
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Bengal argues agencies lack right to sue
Representing the West Bengal state government, senior Advocate Shyam Divan argued that allowing the Central Government to file a petition against a state government will be "dangerous to the federal structure".
He added that statutory organisations like CBI, NCB, etc., do not have the right to sue. To this, Justice Mishra asked if "unusual" situations like the chief minister obstructing a central agency come up.
Supreme Court differs, calls case unusual
Justice Mishra said, "Because in this case, according to them, the Chief Minister barged into some government office controlled by the Central Government... if (Articles) 226 is also not maintainable, 32 is also not maintainable, then who will decide? Someday, some other Chief Minister may enter some other office..."
Divan further added that the Constitution does provide a remedy. He suggested that appropriate proceedings can rather be initiated by the Centre than a department acting independently.