The Bengal government has termed in Supreme Court the Calcutta High Court’s Tuesday directive for a CBI probe into the Sandeshkhali violence as “perverse, illegal and arbitrary” and “deserves to be set aside.”

However, the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the state was not listed for hearing by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, contrary to expectations.

The Bengal government's standing counsel Astha Sharma and a team of legal experts, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the state, had made frantic efforts on Tuesday and Wednesday for the urgent listing. It is not known whether the SLP will come up for consideration on Thursday.

In its SLP, the state has assailed the high court division bench’s order as “perverse, illegal and arbitrary and deserves to be set aside".

The government cited several reasons to press for the revocation of the high court order. The government has said the impugned order frustrates the state’s right to avail a remedy "available to it under law of appealing in the Apex court" and "Unsubstantiated aspersions had been cast" on the administration. The state government also said the transfer of the investigation to the CBI "in a cursory manner is in violation of the law" laid down by the Supreme Court in many earlier judgments.

The SLP said the orders of the division bench were self-contradictory and placed the blame on the state for inaction. Another argument cited by the state for the plea against the high court order was that extensive steps taken by police were completely ignored.

“It is most respectfully submitted that the impugned order was pronounced by the Ld. Division Bench at 3 pm and uploaded on the High Court website by 3.30 pm (approx.), but the directions contained therein required the Petitioner/State Government to comply with such directions by 4.30 pm on the self- same day i.e. 05.03.2024 which effectively frustrated the Petitioner’s right to avail its remedy under Article 136 of the Constitution," read the SLP.