Calcutta High Court Appoints Former Chief Justice Manjula Chellur To Head SIT Constituted To Probe Post Poll Violence Cases [Read Order]

The Calcutta High Court on Friday notified that Justice Manjula Chellur, former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court would head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the High Court to probe into allegations of post poll violence that had erupted in the State of West Bengal after the declaration of the 2021 assembly elections.

In its order dated August 19, the High Court had directed the constitution of a SIT consisting of IPS officers of the West Bengal cadre- Suman Bala Sahoo and Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar to probe into various criminal cases other than those related to murder, rape and crimes against women. 

"The working of the SIT shall be overviewed by a retired Hon'ble Judge of Hon'ble the Supreme Court, who shall be requested to take up the assignment after taking his/her consent. He will be required to only review the working of the SIT and ensure that it is moving on a right track. Any report(s), pleadings or applications shall be filed in court only by and under the signatures of the Head of SIT. The idea being to inspire confidence regarding the independence of system being followed for investigation of cases", the order dated August 19 had stated. 

On Friday a 5 judge Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice I.P Mukerji, Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Subrata Talukdar informed the concerned parties that Justice Manjula Chellur would monitor the functioning of the constituted SIT pursuant to its earlier order. The Bench had assembled to oversee compliance of its earlier directions. 

"On account of immediate non-availability of a retired Hon'ble Supreme Court Judge to take up the assignment, we deem it appropriate to modify the aforesaid part of the order. While adding that the working of the SIT is to be monitored by a retired Chief Justice of a High Court. Further we had requested Hon'ble Ms. Justice Manjula Chellur, retired Chief Justice of this Court to take up the assignment. She has very graciously accepted our request. We accordingly appoint her to overview the working of SIT", the Bench observed on Friday. 

The Court further directed the State government to extend Justice Manjula Chellur a sum of Rs 10 lakhs for the assignment. In addition, it was ordered that arrangements must be made for her to stay at a place befitting to a Chief Justice. 

"It shall be the duty of the Chief Secretary of the State of West Bengal to ensure that all arrangements for her travel and stay are made and protocol facilities are extended to her", the order further read.  

The High Court vide its earlier order had handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) the investigation of the cases related to murder, rape and crime against women that had allegedly taken place post the declaration of the West Bengal assembly elections in May 2021. The Court had specified that the CBI investigation would be court monitored. 

Pursuant to the Court's directions, the Government of West Bengal had released a notification dated September 1, 2021 appointing 10 IPS officers to assist the SIT constituted by the High Court. 

"The services of the IPS officers as given below are hereby spared in addition to their normal duties to assist the SIT constituted by the Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta", the notification read. 

In a related development, the West Bengal government has approached the Supreme Court challenging the aforementioned order of the Calcutta High Court directing CBI probe into cases related to murder, rape and crimes against women. The State has averred that it did not expect a fair probe as the CBI was acting at the behest of the Centre and is busy foisting cases against various TMC functionaries. 

Case Title: Anindya Sundar Das v. Union of India and other connected matters

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