The Supreme Court has stayed the Calcutta High Court judgment which had struck down West Bengal Government notifications creating dedicated police stations for the Special Task Force (STF) and assigning specific courts at Bidhannagar and Siliguri to try cases investigated by the STF.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana issued notice on the West Bengal Government’s appeal against the Calcutta High Court’s June 19, 2026 judgment.
The High Court had dealt with a challenge by members of the Jalpaiguri Bar Association to two notifications issued by the State Government on January 30, 2025 and February 10, 2025 in Rajarshi Biswas & Ors., WPA No. 1368 of 2025. The first notification created two dedicated STF police stations, one at Salt Lake, Kolkata, and the other at Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri, with specified territorial and offence-related jurisdictions. The second notification assigned designated criminal courts to deal with cases investigated by these STF police stations.
The Calcutta High Court had held that although the STF itself was validly constituted in 2019 and could continue investigating specified offences, the State Government could not, through executive notifications, create a separate police-station and court structure outside the framework prescribed by law. It consequently struck down the January 30 and February 10 notifications, along with the related notification creating posts for the dedicated police stations.
The High Court had, however, clarified that its judgment would not affect the 2019 notification constituting the STF, and that the STF could continue investigating the offences assigned to it.
The Supreme Court has now stayed the operation of the Calcutta High Court judgment, while issuing notice in the State’s appeal.
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