The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, told West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that her move to interfere with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the offices of political consultancy firm I-PAC earlier this year is not a "happy situation".
The SC bench, comprising Justice Pankaj Mishra and Justice N.V. Anjaria, noted that the central investigating agency cannot be left remediless when its functioning is interrupted, in response to the West Bengal government's contention that the ED cannot invoke the remedy under Article 32 of the Constitution.
Article 32 gives every citizen the right to directly approach the Supreme Court for the enforcement of their Fundamental Rights.
According to a report by LiveLaw, the state had argued: "ED is not a juristic entity... it is nothing beyond just a department of the government. It does not have by itself any personality."
The state had further said if there is no enforceable fundamental right, “the Article 32 petition is not maintainable.”
However, the bench observed: "The case here is that some chief minister allegedly barges into a government office and interferes with the Central government agency's work. What is the remedy then? What happens if some other CM does it again? We have to respond to an organic situation where some remedy has to be there."
ED had accused senior West Bengal police officials, including Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, of obstructing its searches conducted under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
On January 8, Banerjee went to the residence of Prateek Jain, head of I-PAC, during the ED raids and left with a laptop, a phone, and some files. She then proceeded to I-PAC’s Salt Lake office, where another ED team was conducting searches, and came out with more files.
