‘Gherao’ of judicial officers: SC permits NIA to file chargesheet in West Bengal court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the NIA to file its charge sheet on completion of investigation in the sensational incident of April 1, 2026 in West Bengal in which seven judicial officers, engaged in Special Investive Revision of electoral rolls, were illegally confined by a mob in Malda district.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was told by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the NIA, that a fresh status report was filed by the probe agency giving details of the investigation carried so far.

Taking note of the submission, the bench said, “The NIA will be at liberty to file chargesheet in a court of competent jurisdiction.”

The court also permitted the NIA not to file any further status report in the case for the time being after Raju said that the investigators will be “neckdeep into the investigation”.

As many as 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand are deployed in the ongoing SIR process to deal with over 60 lakh objections of those excluded from the voter list.

The top court had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter from the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court detailing a harrowing incident of April 1 night, where seven judicial officers, including three women, and a five-year-old child were held captive by a mob for over nine hours without food or water.

Subsequently, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into the case on a complaint of the Election Commission at the instruction of the top court.

On April 13, the bench made it clear that the security cover provided to judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal will remain in place until the conclusion of the upcoming assembly election and cannot be withdrawn without its prior permission.

It also wanted to know if those arrested by the NIA for the April 1 gherao of seven judicial officers “had any political background”, with the CJI saying “this has to be taken to a logical conclusion”.