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Supreme Court asks Calcutta HC to consider security for former judge
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to examine a plea for enhanced security for former High Court judge Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, who currently heads an…
The Story in Brief
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to examine a plea for enhanced security for former High Court judge Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, who currently heads an Appellate Tribunal for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. The petition, filed by her son Advocate Ananya Kanti Roy Saraswati, alleges that after his mother's car was involved in a planned accident on April 22 while travelling to the tribunal, a handwritten threat letter was delivered to her Rajarhat residence on April 30 warning that she and her family would be killed if Muslim names were not added to voter lists. A second identical threat letter was later delivered to the advocate's Kolkata home, and CCTV wiring at the judge's residence was tampered with.
The petitioner claims repeated complaints to the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate yielded no effective protection. The SIR tribunals were set up by the Supreme Court after it noted a 'trust deficit' between the Election Commission and the West Bengal government, to adjudicate disputed inclusions and deletions from electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana declined to examine the merits of the case, instead requesting the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to 'look into the matter and take necessary steps'.
The Indian Opinion
The security of a judicial officer overseeing politically sensitive electoral revision in West Bengal facing threats is a serious matter, but the Supreme Court's decision to route the plea to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice rather than ordering a CBI or SIT probe themselves feels like a familiar judicial punt. Headlines shouting 'threats to judge' or 'SC sends message' risk obscuring a more uncomfortable question: if a sitting High Court judge's son must approach the apex court for protection from state police inaction, what hope does an ordinary litigant have? The real test will not be the Chief Justice's order, but whether the Bidhannagar Police actually provide effective security and investigate the threat letters and CCTV tampering as a coordinated attempt to intimidate a tribunal, or if this becomes another file. Until concrete action like arrests or a credible threat assessment is public, this remains a worrying signal about the safety of those tasked with upholding electoral rolls.
Sources (2): livelaw.in, timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
