New Delhi, April 2 --  The Supreme Court on Thursday, April 2, took suo motu cognisance of the gheraoing of seven judicial officers, including three women, by a mob in West Bengal's Malda district during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, terming it a "calculated and deliberate" attempt to demoralise the officers and obstruct the electoral process, and slamming the state administration's inaction as a "criminal failure."

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi took up the matter urgently after receiving a letter from the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice about the incident, in which judicial officers carrying out SIR duties were surrounded b...