Supreme Court hands over probe into Malda mob violence to NIA

THe sublime margaret court on mon directed the subject investigating Agency (NIA) to probe into the incident of mob violence in West Bengal’s Malda district, where seven judicial officers were held hostage for eight hours, during a protest against the removal of names in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.The court further took a dig at the state chief secretary for being “obstinate” in not being accessible to the high court chief justice on the day of the incident, that also involved threat and assault against the officers.Days after the top court took suo motu cognisance of the April 1 violence, the NIA informed a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant that based on the preliminary enquiry (PE) filed in the case, the agency has identified 12 instances in all where judicial officers faced coercion or roadblock in performing the SIR duties entrusted to them by the top court.However, as these cases are under probe by the state police and do not come under the scheduled offences under the NIA Act, it would require a court order to take the investigation to its logical conclusion, it said in a sealed cover report submitted to the court.Giving top priority to the safety and security of judicial officers, the top court, using its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, held, “We, under the exercise of power under Article 142 of the Constitution, direct the FIRs to be taken over by NIA, irrespective of the offences under which they are registered.”The state chief secretary and director general of police along with district officials appeared before the court online offering their apology after the court summoned them to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated.The chief secretary explained he was on a flight from Delhi to Kolkata in the evening and after landing at 4.30 pm, received no call from any official.“You are so high that the chief justice of the high court cannot access you,” the bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, observed pointing to the frantic efforts by the HC chief justice until late night on April 1 to secure the seven judicial officers.When senior advocate Siddharth Luthra sought to defend the officer, the bench remarked, “Do not defend such obstinate officers. We know the way some of these officers are being pampered.”The court noted instances where district officials simply watched, refusing to rescue the lady judicial officers involved in the incident.The court spared contempt action, while observing, “You have a word with CJ and try to redeem what you have done. Only because of timely intervention of CJI, something untoward was avoided. We hope the officers now well understand the sense of responsibility and manner in which they were to respond when seven judicial officers were held hostage.”The bench said, “It was a motivated, pre-planned and deeply instigated act and not a usual outburst by people. The NIA will be at liberty to register further FIRs if, during investigation, it is found that the offences had other dimensions or involvement of persons for different considerations.”The court directed the state to hand over the case files and extend full cooperation to the NIA team which was permitted to file its charge sheets with NIA court in Kolkata. Luthra pointed out that two persons identified as alleged kingpins are presently in police custody.The court permitted NIA to again interrogate them and file fresh status reports when the matter is again heard on April 13.Even on deployment of central forces by ECI, the bench said, “There is no question of withdrawal of central forces looking at what has happened in the state.”It allowed the ECI to inform if the state machinery fails in any circumstance. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appearing for Centre, shared a report about a female judicial officer crying for help and protection to depict state of affairs in the state.The ECI lawyer Dama Sesadari Naidu shared the video of the incident for the court to see which raised a political storm in court with senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Kalyan Banerjee, Shyam Divan Menaka Banerjee and Gopal Sankaranarayanan questioning EC’s neutrality and Centre’s involvement in the matter.Mehta even alleged that new documents are being “engineered” and should not be permitted to be filed during the appeal stage. The court acknowledged the problem.“You now have a plethora of birth certificates of 1995 coming out in 2025 that makes it suspect. We are fully conscious of the danger of allowing new documents,” the bench remarked.ECI further stated that the entire bulk of the 6 million objections under the “logical discrepancy” have been decided by nearly 500 judicial officers (serving and former) of West Bengal along with 200 officers from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha.He further informed that the 19 appellate tribunals to be headed by former chief justices and judges of high courts have also been constituted to hear appeals arising out of orders passed by the judicial officers.The court directed the ECI to publish the supplementary list by Monday night without awaiting the digital signatures of the judicial officers as some technical problems were reported in this process.To ensure the hearing of appeals goes on smoothly, the court requested the HC chief justice to form a committee of three retired CJs hearing the appeals to formulate a uniform procedure to be followed by the 19 tribunals.The court also directed the ECI to ensure that its nodal officer issues a receipt of acknowledgement of appeal even for cases filed offline by aggrieved persons approaching the tribunal or officers at the district level.The state government along with chief minister Mamata Banerjee who have filed petitions challenging the SIR process sought a timeline for decisions by the tribunals.The court said, “Let us first create an environment so that tribunals can maximise. We do not want to rush them.”