Today, a five-judges bench of the Calcutta high court headed by acting chief Justice Rajesh Bindal is hearing the bail plea of the four leaders accused in the 2016 Narada sting operation case.
The matter was referred to a larger bench after there was a split between Acting CJ Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee on the grant of interim bail.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the agency which arrested the leaders, has moved the Supreme Court seeking adjournment of the high court hearing.

Sitting ministers of Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress legislator Madan Mitra, and former MLA Sovan Chatterjee, were among the arrested ministers.

At around 1:10 pm, acting CJ Bindal clarified that by the time the division bench had completed the hearing, it had got the bail order, and the division bench passed the order after seeing the bail order.

In the hearing, Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra who was appearing on behalf of the arrested TMC leaders stated that bail is a judicial order which cannot be canceled under CrPC Section 407 or Article 226 of the Indian constitution. The only remedy is Section 439(2) or 482 of CrPC, if there is perversity and that there are no circumstances to invoke Section 482. He also added that there cannot be a transfer of such cases to the High Court as this is a matter pertaining to special offense, for which there are special courts.

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The trial court heard the matter virtually. Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing the four arrested leaders stated that the learned Special Judge does not give any hint of either access to justice being disturbed or hearing being obstructed. Singhvi added that the test of martial law courts cannot function and that the Special Judge gives no such indication.
The central agency, CBI has also challenged the high court orders putting the leaders under house arrest and constituting a larger bench to hear the bail plea of the accused leaders. Kalyan Banerjee, advocate and Trinamool Congress MP said, “The CBI has moved the Supreme Court when the high court has already constituted a larger bench to hear the case. We will oppose it.”

The Calcutta High Court on Friday put the four politicians under house arrest and constituted a larger bench to hear the bail plea after a difference of opinion split the two-judge bench on granting them an interim bail in a corruption case.