00:00Breaking news coming in from the top court of the country.
00:02Supreme Court has a word or two to say to Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal.
00:06And this is with regard to the IPAC raid case.
00:09I quickly quote the quote first.
00:11This is not a dispute between the state and the union.
00:14And the Chief Minister of any state cannot walk in the midst of an investigation.
00:18And also adding, this is aspirin act committed by an individual who happens to be
00:22the Chief Minister keeping the whole democracy in jeopardy.
00:26I want to immediately bring in our legal correspondent Anisha Mathur for the latest here in the newsroom.
00:32Anisha, go ahead. What exactly has the Supreme Court said?
00:36And what do you think primarily is the reason?
00:39What did the lawyers say in the defense of Chief Minister and Mamata Banerjee?
00:43See, Pooja, if you look at what has happened in the court today.
00:46Now, the ED versus Mamata Banerjee case has been going on.
00:49This was part of the hearing that has been happening for the last several weeks really.
00:53Now, Senior Advocate Mehnika Guruswamy for the West Bengal Police.
00:58Who is also the Member of Parliament now.
01:00She has appeared for the West Bengal Police who was arguing that this kind of a petition
01:05cannot be filed by the ED.
01:07She was saying this is a centre versus state dispute.
01:11To that, the bench of Justices Mishra and Anjaria has commented that
01:17do not turn this into a centre versus state dispute.
01:19This is a situation, this is an unprecedented situation where the sitting Chief Minister
01:24of a state has walked into the midst of an investigation.
01:27You've put democracy in jeopardy.
01:30That is the comment coming in from the court.
01:31What does it mean? Can you elaborate on that?
01:33Why did the court say that?
01:34Because, look, the entire argument from the West Bengal government, from Mamata Banerjee,
01:39is that the ED could not have gone to the Supreme Court,
01:42that the ED could not have filed this petition before the Supreme Court
01:46and they do not have the constitutional or legal authority
01:50to say that, to create a dispute with the state police or the state Chief Minister
01:58while the investigation is ongoing.
02:00Now, to that, in that context, the arguments that were being made today
02:04by Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, by Senior Advocate Menaka Angora Swamy
02:08and by Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, was that a writ petition cannot be filed
02:13by the Enforcement Directorate, that the Constitution, the law of the country
02:17does not envisage a situation where one state agency, that is a central agency,
02:23files a petition against a state government.
02:26So, that is the legal argument that is going on before the Supreme Court.
02:29Can an investigation agency, which is an instrument of the state,
02:34that is the government, file a petition against a state government?
02:38On that context, the court said, well, you are raising a constitutional question,
02:42but the constitution makers, the experts could not even have conceived of a situation
02:47that a Chief Minister walks in, in the middle of an investigation.
02:51In that context is where the court has made this observation.
02:54But remember, viewers, this hearing is still ongoing.
02:57The Solicitor General of India will be presenting his side of the arguments
03:00on behalf of the ED now, tomorrow.
03:03But also the court said, you have taken us through Sirwai Ambedkar.
03:06None of them would have conceived this situation in this country.
03:09None of them would have conceived of this situation in this country.
03:11One day a Chief Minister was walking.
03:12That a Chief Minister would walk into an investigation.
03:15So effectively, really, Pooja, while the West Bengal government,
03:20while Mamata Banerjee's lawyers are arguing that you cannot have the ED filing a petition
03:25in the Supreme Court saying we have a right to investigate,
03:28the court is very clearly pointing to the West Bengal government
03:31that the law is created in a situation that the centre versus state dispute has to be heard
03:39in a particular context.
03:40So this is not a dispute between the state and the centre and state.
03:43And a Chief Minister of any state cannot walk in the midst of an investigation
03:46and put democracy in peril.
03:48Appreciate you joining us, Anisha Mathur.
03:50So that's what has been said.
03:51In the court, just a few hours to go now for the Bengal phase 1 polling.
03:55But there have been a lot of controversies.
03:58And this time, vis-a-vis the IPAC and the court.
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