New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday expressed strong displeasure over the detention of seven judges who had gone to West Bengal on election-related duty, saying it was “not ready to trust the state police” in the matter. The court also directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to conduct an intensive probe into the alleged attempt to attack the judges.
West Bengal is set to hold Assembly elections in two phases on April 23 and April 29 across 294 constituencies. As campaigning gathered pace, seven judges appointed by the Calcutta High Court—acting on Supreme Court directions—had travelled to Malda last week to inquire into complaints of names being removed from voter lists and to facilitate their inclusion.
According to the account placed before the court, the judges were detained from around 3 pm to 11 pm, allegedly without food or drinking water. After the Calcutta High Court’s registrar general alerted senior police officials, the state administration was accused of failing to act, prompting the High Court Chief Justice to intervene directly to secure their release.
The incident reportedly escalated as the judges left the location, with their vehicles allegedly pelted with stones and attacked with sticks. Taking suo motu cognisance, the Supreme Court had earlier ordered the West Bengal chief secretary to appear.
When the matter was heard again by a bench led by Chief Justice Suryakant along with Justices Jaymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, the chief secretary Dushyant Nariyala and other officials appeared via video conference. The bench directed him to apologise to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice for not responding to repeated calls; after sharp remarks on the administration’s conduct, he tendered a public apology in court.
