Mamata Banerjee-I-PAC Case: Supreme Court Reserves Verdict In ED Plea For CBI Probe

The Supreme Court has reserved is decision on Enforcement Directorate’s plea seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged obstruction of an ED search at the office of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a political consultant associated with the Trinamool Congress, involving former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and certain State police officers.

A bench of Justices P.K. Mishra and N.V. Anjaria has heard extensive submissions on the maintainability of the ED’s plea under Article 32 and whether the matter should be transferred to the CBI.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mamata Banerjee told the bench today that West Bengal government could itself transfer the case to CBI as the state government had changed and it had the requisite power to do so. 

"An article 32 petition was filed and the prayer was to send it to the CBI. Because she was a sitting chief minister. Now she is not the chief minister. So there is no impediment. Now the state has another government. Now they are entitled to send any matter to the CBI. If they wish to do it no can stand in their way. But why should your lordships do it. The state has that power," Sibal told the bench.

Background

In April, SG Mehta had told the bench that "The sitting Chief Minister has actively caused obstruction in investigation...Rule of Law ceases to operate when executive uses state machinery to obstruct investigation."

Previously, the Court had come down sharply on Mamata Banerjee over allegations that she interfered with an ongoing investigation, observing that such conduct “puts democracy in peril.” “This is not a dispute between the State and the Union,” the Bench had observed. “A Chief Minister of any State cannot walk into the midst of an investigation, put the democracy in peril, and then say don’t convert this into a dispute between the State and the Union,” it said.

The Court further remarked that such a situation was unprecedented and went beyond conventional federal disputes. “We never thought that in this country a day would come where a sitting Chief Minister would walk into the office where an investigating agency is probing a case,” the Bench said.

Court had also raised sharp questions to the West Bengal government over its objection to the maintainability of a plea filed by the ED, asking whether officers of the agency cease to enjoy fundamental rights merely because they are government officials. Court was hearing the plea filed by ED against the West Bengal Chief Minister and certain state police officers over their obstruction of a search at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC.

In a complete reversal of her stance, Mamata Banerjee had told the Court that ED allowed her to retrieve devices and physical files during its search at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC, which works with the All India Trinamool Congress. On January 15, the court had issued notice on petitions filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and its officers alleging interference by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and senior state police officials during a search conducted at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its director Prateek Jain.

Case Title: Directorate of Enforcement v. The State of West Bengal

Bench: Justices PK Mishra and NV Anjaria

Hearing Date: October 29, 2026