The Supreme Court on Monday directed that the “enhanced security” measures provided to judicial officers in Bengal be continued until further orders, even as it asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file a status report to explain whether people who had held seven judicial officers hostage on April 1 in Malda district had any political connections.
“In the next phase (hearing), we would like to know if any of these people arrested had any political background. We don’t want this to be an academic exercise. This has to be taken to a logical conclusion,” a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, who represented the NIA during the Bengal SIR hearing.
The court was referring to the April 1 incident in which a mob protesting against the large-scale deletion of voters’ names in the district gheraoed seven judicial officers in the Mothabari Assembly constituency of Malda district.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for the Bengal government, informed the bench that the state was extending complete cooperation to the NIA, which had taken over the investigation into the April 1 incident. Bhati agreed to the submission and said the Bengal government was extending cooperation to the NIA in the present matter.
The CJI then said the court was deeply impressed with the hard work done by the judicial officers who even forfeited their Saturdays and Sundays to adjudicate the voters' claims and had disposed of about 60.04 lakh cases.
The bench said it appreciated the enthusiasm of the judicial officers in discharging their duties without any fear and upholding the due process of law.
Later, the bench dictated an order directing the Bengal DGP, chief secretary and other officials to ensure that the enhanced security measures adopted for the judicial officers would not be withdrawn without prior permission from the Supreme Court.
While terming the hostage drama as a “brazen attempt” to “browbeat” the entire judiciary, the Supreme Court had on April 2 directed deployment of central forces to protect the officers discharging their SIR duties and ordered either a CBI or NIA probe into the unprecedented incident.