On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India was highly critical of the administration in West Bengal and called the case of the incarceration of judicial officers in Malda a total breakdown of the civil and police machinery. On its own initiative, the highest court described the incident as a despicable and a highly orchestrated move to threaten the judiciary and compromise its independence.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant including Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi passed a sequence of urgent orders to guarantee the security of judicial officers. The court ordered the Election Commission of India (ECI) to promptly send central forces to all the places where judges are adjudicating on the objections to electoral roll revisions. It also instructed the ECI to hand over the probe into the case on 1 April to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The court has served notices to senior state officials such as chief secretary, director general of police and home secretary requesting them to substantiate reasons why contempt proceedings should not be taken. The case has been set to be re-heard on April 6, and the officials will be required to present themselves virtually.
The intervention of the court comes after the Calcutta High Court reported that seven judicial officers, three of them being women, were detained by a mob in a block development office in Kaliachak, Malda, almost 10 hours. Although there were several warnings, the government was said to take too long to act, which casts big questions on the responsibility of the administration, and the readiness of the police force.