New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Friday quashed the Calcutta High Court’s June 9 order refusing to take on record the reply affidavits of West Bengal government, as also of its Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Law Minister Moloy Ghtak, opposing the CBI’s plea to transfer the Narada scam case.
A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari urged the 5-judge High Court Bench, headed by acting chief justice Rajesh Bindal, to decide afresh their reply before deciding on the CBI petition to transfer the scam case to the High Court or outside West Bengal.
The CBI had rushed to High Court citing obstruction in its investigations in the Narada scam by TMC workers led by Mamata protesting at its office in Kolkata on May 17 after four of its leaders were arrested in the sting tape case on a 2017 order of the High Court. Those arrested were ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee
In its rejected reply, the West Bengal government had denied the CBI's allegation of the breakdown of law and order in the state capital because of which it was not able to perform its legal duties.