Congress and 13 other parties filed a petition with the Supreme Court accusing the NDA government of abusing the CBI and ED to conduct raids, harass political opponents, and arrest them in an effort to quell dissent. The petition also asked the court to establish pre- and post-arrest rules for the investigation agencies.
Appearing for the opposition parties, which have governments in 11 states and UTs, senior advocate A M Singhvi pleaded with a bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud for urgent hearing to “save democracy from being irreparably harmed”. The CJI agreed to list the petition for hearing on April 5. Singhvi said democracy is part of the basic structure of the Constitution and no one, least of all the probe agencies, could be permitted to harm it.
The other political parties who are joint petitioners are - DMK, RJD, BRS, TMC, AAP, NCP, Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction, JMM. BJD, the ruling party in Odisha, and YSRCP, the party in power in Andhra Pradesh, were absent from the petitioners' list. The action comes a year before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and comes after a flurry of actions by investigation agencies against leaders of opposition parties over the previous three years. That should keep political tensions high.