Supreme Court says West Bengal’s suit against Centre challenging CBI probing cases in state ‘maintainable’.

Supreme Court holds the West Bengal’s suit against Centre challenging CBI registering FIRs maintainable. The Supreme Court on Wednesday held as legally maintainable the suit moved by the West Bengal government against the central government’s directive allowing the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI to conduct investigations within the state’s jurisdiction. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said the Bengal government’s suit on the CBI probing cases despite withdrawal of consent by state shall proceed in accordance with law on its own merits. The top court posted the West Bengal government suit on the CBI probe in state on August 13 for framing of issues. The Bengal government had approached the Supreme Court against the CBI over filing cases despite the state withdrawing its general consent for probe to the central agency in 2018. The Supreme Court had on May 8 reserved its verdict on the maintainability of the suit filed by Mamata Banerjee government. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal, had argued that once the state had withdrawn its consent on November 16, 2018, the Centre could not allow the probe agency to enter the state for investigation.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 CBI investigations. 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Constitution, alleging that the CBI has been filing FIRs and proceeding with investigations despite the state having withdrawn the general consent to the federal agency to probe cases within its territorial jurisdiction.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.