New Delhi, Jul 10: The Supreme Court on Wednesday held as maintainable a suit filed by the West Bengal government which alleged that the CBI was continuing probes into various cases despite the state’s withdrawal of general consent on November 16, 2018.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said the state’s suit shall proceed in accordance with law on its own merits. It fixed the matter for hearing on August 13 for framing of issues. The apex court had on May 8 reserved its verdict on the maintainability of the suit filed by the state.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal, had argued that once the state had withdrawn its consent on November 16, 2018, the Centre could not allow the probe agency to enter the state for investigation.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had said that the Union government or its departments do not exercise any supervisory control over Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probes.
The Centre had raised preliminary objections about the maintainability of the lawsuit filed by the West Bengal government, contending that there was no cause of action against the Union of India.
The West Bengal government has filed an original suit in the apex court against the Centre under Article 131 of the Constitution, alleging that the CBI has been filing FIRs and proceeding with investigations despite the state having withdrawn the general consent to the federal agency to probe cases within its territorial jurisdiction. Article 131 deals with the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction in a dispute between the Centre and one or more states.
SC stays Gujarat HC order on taking back land given to Adani Group firm near Mundra port
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Gujarat High Court order asking the state government to resume the process of taking back nearly 108 hectares of grazing land given to an Adani Group entity in 2005 near the Mundra port.
A bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan took note of the appeal of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd that the impugned order is required to be stayed in the interest of justice.
“Issue notice. Stay of impugned order,” the bench said.
On July 5, the state government had informed the high court that it will take back nearly 108 hectares of ‘gauchar’ (grazing) land which was given to an Adani Group entity in 2005.
“Taking note of the affidavit of the Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Revenue, State of Gujarat, we require the concerned authority/officers to complete the process of resumption in accordance with law,” the high court had ordered and posted the matter for July 26.
The residents of Navinal village of Kutch district had moved a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the high court against a decision to allot 231 acres of ‘gauchar’ land to the Adani firm.
