The Supreme Court bench deferred the matter to go through a chart submitted by the state government
The Supreme Court today said it will hear on September 20 West Bengal government's appeal challenging the Calcutta High Court order directing a court-monitored CBI probe into the alleged cases of rape and murder in the post-poll violence after accepting an NHRC panel's recommendations.
A bench comprising Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose deferred the matter to go through a chart submitted by the state government.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state government, pointed to the members of the committee formed to investigate the incidents and said, "Can you imagine these people have been appointed to collect the data? Is this a BJP investigating committee, my Lords?"
He further said that for cases like rape and murder there is the CBI and for other events, there is a Special Investigative Team (SIT).
"If somebody had a political past and if he lands up in an official position by that very fact will we treat him to be biased?" the top court observed.
Kapil Sibal submitted that the members are still sharing posts related to BJP and how can the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee appoint such members? He also sought some interim order in the meantime.
The top court then posted the matter for hearing on September 20 and said, "Nothing will happen. We'll have it on Monday."
The state government in its special leave petition alleged that it did not expect fair and just investigation by the central agency which is busy foisting cases against functionaries of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Earlier, lawyer Anindya Sundar Das, one of the petitioners on whose plea the Calcutta High Court verdict came on August 19, had filed a caveat in the Supreme Court urging that no order be passed without hearing him if the state or other litigant move appeals.
A five-judge bench of the High Court, headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, had ordered a CBI investigation in all alleged cases of crimes in West Bengal after the Assembly poll results were announced on May 2.
As regards other criminal cases related to the post-poll violence, the High Court had directed that they be investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the monitoring of the court.
The High Court bench, which also comprised justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar, had observed that there were "definite and proved" allegations that complaints of the victims of violence in the aftermath of the West Bengal Assembly polls were not even registered.
Ordering the setting up of an SIT to probe all other cases, the court had said that it will include Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar, all India Police Service officers of the West Bengal cadre.
"All the cases where, as per the report of the Committee, the allegations are about murder of a person and crimes against women regarding rape/attempt to rape, shall be referred to the CBI for investigation," it had said.
The High Court has also directed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) committee, constituted by its Chairman on the direction by the five-judge bench, and any other commission or authority and the state to immediately hand over the records of the cases to the CBI to carry forward the probe.
The bench had said it will monitor the investigations by both the CBI and the SIT and asked the two agencies to submit status reports to the court within six weeks.
It had said that the working of the SIT will be overseen by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court for which a separate order will be passed after obtaining his/her consent.
In its ruling, the bench had said heinous crimes such as murder and rape "deserve to be investigated by an independent agency which in the circumstances can only be Central Bureau of Investigation".
The bench had said the State failed to register FIRs even in some cases of alleged murder. "This shows a pre-determined mind to take the investigation in a particular direction."
"Under such circumstances investigation by independent agency will inspire confidence to all concerned," it had noted.
It had said that allegations that the police had not registered a number of cases initially and that some were registered only after the court had intervened or the committee was constituted were found to be true.
It also observed that the facts in relation to the allegations made in the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) are "even more glaring" as the incidents are not isolated to one place in the state.
The NHRC committee had on July 13 submitted its final report to the court.
An interim report of the NHRC committee had mentioned that Atif Rasheed, a member of the committee, was obstructed from discharging his duty, and he and his team members were attacked by some on June 29 in the Jadavpur area in Kolkata, the court noted.
The PILs had alleged that people were subjected to assault, made to flee homes and properties were destroyed in the violence in the wake of the Assembly elections, and sought impartial probe into the incidents.
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