A day after failing to sustain its ban on screening of ‘The Kerala story’, the West Bengal government suffered another setback as the Supreme Court refused to stay an order of the Calcutta HC directing NIA probe into violent attacks on Ram Navami procession in Howrah’s Shibpur, Hooghly’s Rishra and Uttar Dinajpur‘s Dalkhola areas on March 30.
The TMC government through advocates A M Singhvi and Gopal Shankaranarayanan told a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices P S Narasimha and K V Viswanthan that the HC mechanically ordered NIA probe on a PIL filed by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari even when the scheduled offences under NIA Act are not made out in five of the six FIRs. “Let the one FIR which disclosed scheduled offence be transferred to NIA and others be probed by state police,” Singhvi submitted. But, the bench said, “The investigations have already been transferred through a well considered judgment by the HC. We will consider your (Bengal government’s) submissions …in July”.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NIA, said though NIA has registered cases following the HC order, the Bengal police are not giving the agency the case documents. The SG requested the court to specify that there is no stay to allay apprehensions that the state police still would not give the papers. The bench said, “We will hear the petition after summer vacation. Why should we say we have not stayed the HC order when we are not staying it”.
The TMC government through advocates A M Singhvi and Gopal Shankaranarayanan told a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices P S Narasimha and K V Viswanthan that the HC mechanically ordered NIA probe on a PIL filed by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari even when the scheduled offences under NIA Act are not made out in five of the six FIRs. “Let the one FIR which disclosed scheduled offence be transferred to NIA and others be probed by state police,” Singhvi submitted. But, the bench said, “The investigations have already been transferred through a well considered judgment by the HC. We will consider your (Bengal government’s) submissions …in July”.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the NIA, said though NIA has registered cases following the HC order, the Bengal police are not giving the agency the case documents. The SG requested the court to specify that there is no stay to allay apprehensions that the state police still would not give the papers. The bench said, “We will hear the petition after summer vacation. Why should we say we have not stayed the HC order when we are not staying it”.