The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 18, 2026) told the counsel for the West Bengal government in a stern tone that it will not dictate to the court as to what is on record to consider. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in which Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been accused of obstructing and also destroying evidence during the ED raid at the office of political consultancy firm IPAC. ED has registered an FIR against Mamata Banerjee and top police officers of Bengal and demanded a CBI investigation.
The Bengal government had sought some more time from the bench of Justice PK Mishra and Justice NV Anjaria to file its reply on the ED’s petition. Senior advocate Shyam Diwan, who appeared to present the side of the Bengal government, said that the ED has made some new allegations in its affidavit, to which they need some more time to file their reply. On this, the Supreme Court said that the ED had filed the affidavit more than 10 days ago. SG Tushar Mehta also objected to this and said that ED had filed the affidavit two weeks ago on February 19, at least they would have come up with some valid excuse to postpone the hearing.
SG Tushar Mehta said that it is surprising that first the Chief Minister interfered in the ED investigation and now the state government is postponing the hearing. Advocate Shyam Dewan said that it would be right to proceed with the case only after the representation is complete. The court asked him whether he wanted to file a reply. The court said that if we feel that the case is worthy of hearing, then we will hear it together instead of filing a counterclaim on the basis of merits.
Advocate Shyam Diwan said that after my counter, a counter argument has come, if there is a need to see it. The court said in a strict tone, ‘Mr. Diwan, you cannot dictate to us as to what is on record, we have to consider.’ Advocate Shyam Diwan also said that he is feeling helpless as he is not getting the benefit of filing the reply. The court said on this that there is no fight going on to postpone the hearing here.
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