New Delhi, April 22 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that while examining the maintainability of pleas filed by three officers of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), seeking registration of an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over an alleged attack by West Bengal Police during a search at the I-PAC office in Kolkata, it cannot ignore "the practical realities" and have to keep in view "the extraordinary situation" unfolding in the election-bound State.

Terming the alleged interference by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in the midst of an investigation being carried out by a Central agency as perilous to democracy, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria said that the alleged act co...