Send notice to Centre on Bengal plea against CBI probes, SC tells registry

The Supreme Court on Monday directed its registry to issue a formal notice to the Centre on a suit filed by the West Bengal government to debar the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from conducting probes in the state without prior approval of the government.

A bench, led by justice L Nageswara Rao, said the notice has to be issued as a matter of procedure.

“The registry has to automatically issue a notice. There is no procedure for listing of suits before the court without issuance of a notice. We will ask the

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registry to issue a notice. We will list this matter after four weeks since the notice has to be for 28 days,” the bench, which also comprised justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna, said.

Appearing for the state, senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Sidharth Luthra said the suit was listed before the bench perhaps because the state government had also sought an interim order to restrain the CBI from lodging any fresh case and from proceeding in other cases till the apex court’s final decision.

Sibal and Luthra added that the suit involves a pure question of law.

At this, the bench said that the state government will have the liberty to approach it in case any urgent directions are required in the next four weeks.

Underlining that the TMC government had in November 2018, withdrawn general consent to carry out a probe in the territory of the state, the suit maintained that registration of 12 cases by the central agency despite withdrawal of consent was an instance of “constitutional overreach” by the Union government. The petition demands annulment of all 12 cases registered by the CBI.

Last week, the state also appealed the SC against the Calcutta High Court’s order on a CBI probe into post poll violence in the state.

The President has notified the appointment of six additional judges of the Karnataka high court as permanent judges after the Supreme Court collegium approved the proposal for the same last month, a central government notification said.

“In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint S/shri Justices (l) Neranahalli Srinivasan Sanjay Gowda (2) Miss Jyoti Mulimani (3) Rangaswamy Nataraj (4) Hemant Chandangoudar (5) Pradeep Singh Yerur and (6) Maheshan Nagaprasanna, Additional Judges, to be Judges of the Karnataka HC with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices,” the notification read.

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