The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre and others on West Bengal's plea challenging the Calcutta High Court for a CBI probe into post-poll offences.
At the beginning of September the Bengal government had moved the apex court challenging the High Court's August order asking the CBI to probe post-poll cases of murder, rape and attempted rape that were mentioned in a National Human Rights Commission report.
The High Court had, in its order on August 19, directed that the CBI will investigate all cases of murder and crimes against women, including rape and attempt to rape, in the aftermath of West Bengal elections, the results of which were declared on May 2.
A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday appointed its former chief justice Manjula Chellur to "overview" the functioning of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that has been formed to probe allegations of post-poll violence, other than rape and murder.
The bench, presided by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, said that Justice (retd) Chellur will oversee the functioning of the SIT that was constituted under the court's directions to investigate cases of violence, barring the "heinous" ones. The five-judge bench had said on August 19 that the working of the SIT would be "overviewed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, for which a separate order shall be passed after taking his or her consent".
Further details awaited.