The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted 10 days to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file reply affidavits on the counter-allegations made by the Bengal government and chief minister Mamata Banerjee in connection with the raids on the premises of Trinamool’s poll consultant I-PAC on January 8.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria conceded a request by solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, for a short adjournment to enable the central agency to file reply affidavits. The matter will be next heard on February 10.

Observing that “lawlessness” will prevail if it does not interfere, the top court had on January 15 issued notices to Mamata, the Bengal DGP and the Calcutta police commissioner on the ED’s petition alleging interference and obstruction during its raids on the I-PAC premises.

The earlier bench of Justice Mishra and Vipul M. Pancholi had asked Mamata and the top police officers to explain their stance on the ED’s plea for a CBI probe and registration of FIRs against the chief minister and the cops for “theft, robbery, dacoity, attempt to murder and trespass”.

The bench had also stayed the FIRs registered by the Bengal government against the ED officials. It had directed the Bengal government to preserve CCTV footage of the raided premises, which culminated in the bitter stand-off between the Bengal government and the ED.

“It is a very serious matter,” the bench had observed while issuing the notices.

Mamata and the state government had, in separate but identical responses, argued that the ED had conducted the searches without proper authorisation and had stolen several files from the I-PAC offices. They had also accused the ED officials of behaving in a “high-handed manner”.

The ED on Tuesday sought time to respond to these counter-allegations.