Admitting the appeal, the bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar listed the matter for next hearing on November 20.

Appearing for the West Bengal government, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the state had challenged the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC’s) report on the basis of which the CBI investigation was ordered. “We have challenged the report since it is biased. Therefore, this matter has to be dealt with,” Sibal said.

Observing “definite and proved allegations” that complaints by the victims of violence following the West Bengal Assembly elections were “not registered”, the Calcutta High Court had on August 19, 2021, ordered the CBI investigation into alleged incidents of murder, rape and attempt to rape, as flagged by a committee whose members were nominated by the chairperson of the the National Human Rights Commission.

In a unanimous ruling on a clutch of petitions, the five-judge bench had said that “such types of incidents, even if isolated, are not good for a healthy democracy”. The bench had made it clear that “it shall be a court-monitored investigation” and “any obstruction in the course of investigation by anyone shall be viewed seriously”.

The bench had said, “It is for the reason that in number of cases, the state had failed to register the FIRs and opined the same to be not the cases of murder. In some cases, even after registration of FIR (first information report), the observation by the state government is that these may result in ‘no case’. This shows pre-determined mind to take investigation into a particular direction. Under such circumstances, investigation by an independent agency will inspire confidence to all concerned.”

The bench ordered the state government to pay compensation to the victims.

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