Chaos in courtroom: Cal HC to hear petitions on ED raids at I-PAC sites with regulated entry

The Calcutta high court will on Wednesday hear petitions by the ED and the Trinamool Congress over the raid by the central agency at the residence and office of political consultancy firm I-PAC director Pratik Jain, with entry to the courtroom restricted only to lawyers concerned with these matters.

Acting chief justice Sujoy Paul directed that the hearings will be held with regulated entry, in view of unmanageable chaos inside the courtroom of justice Suvra Ghosh on January 9 when these matters were to be taken up for hearing.




Justice Ghosh had adjourned the hearing till January 14, and left her chair after repeated requests to those not connected with the petitions to leave the courtroom fell on deaf ears.

The administrative notice said that only the senior counsels, their assisting lawyers and the advocate-on-record on behalf of both parties will be present at the time of hearing.

It said that the court proceedings with regard to the two petitions will be live streamed.

The notice further stated that if anybody, except the petitioners and the respondents, wants to participate in the court proceeding of these two matters, the individual may join virtually.

During the raids here on January 8, TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had turned up at the agency's operation venues, and alleged that the ED investigators were trying to seize the party's sensitive data ahead of the assembly polls due in a few months. The central probe agency also accused Banerjee of removing documents from the spot.

Both the TMC and the ED moved the high court over the raid. While the party sought judicial intervention to restrain the agency from "prejudice, misuse and dissemination" of seized data during the search operations, the ED alleged interference in its investigation, and prayed for transferring the probe into January 8 developments to the CBI.

The ED has made Banerjee a respondent in its petition, along with some officers of the state. The TMC petition has been filed against the Union of India.
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