Show some courtesy to court: Supreme Court on absence of Centre's lawyers in suit filed by West Bengal govt

New Delhi: Show some courtesy to the court, the Supreme Court said on Monday while flagging that law officers or lawyers on behalf of the Centre were not present before it during the hearing of a suit filed by the West Bengal government.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih expressed displeasure while observing that no law officer was present in the court when the matter was called for hearing.

A lawyer told the bench that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was to appear in the court in the matter, was arguing another case before a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna.

"Somebody should be here. This is showing no courtesy to the court. There are so many law officers," Justice Gavai said.

"Show some courtesy to the court. It is a dispute between a state and the Union," the judge said and pointed out that there are also many senior lawyers on the Centre's panel.

The bench then passed over the matter on the request of the lawyer.

Later in the day, when the solicitor general appeared in the court in some other matter, Justice Gavai told him, "Mr solicitor, in that West Bengal matter, nobody was present. It cuts a very sorry picture that the Union is not interested in important matters. There are so many law officers, there are so many senior counsel on your panel and not a single lawyer was present." At the solicitor general's request, the bench adjourned the matter for two weeks.

"Mr Tushar Mehta cannot be in every court. There are 17 courts," Justice Gavai said in a lighter vein.

The West Bengal government has filed an original suit in the apex court against the Centre under Article 131 of the Constitution, alleging that the CBI has been filing FIRs and proceeding with its investigation, despite the state having withdrawn the general consent to the federal agency to probe cases within its territorial jurisdiction.

Article 131 deals with the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction in a dispute between the Centre and one or more states.

In July last year, the top court had rejected the Centre's objection to the lawsuit's maintainability and listed the matter for framing of issues.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the matter for the West Bengal government, had argued that once the state had withdrawn its consent on November 16, 2018, the Centre could not allow the CBI to enter its territory for investigation.