Accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using the state machinery to obstruct its probe against I-PAC office in Kolkata related to the Rs 2,700-crore coal smuggling case, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday told the Supreme Court that there was a complete breakdown of law and order in West Bengal.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, told a Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice NV Anjaria on behalf of the ED that the breakdown of law and order and a breach of the rule of law in the I-PAC case should not be understood as a failure of constitutional machinery.Representing the ED and its official Robin Bansal, Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju sought a CBI probe into the alleged obstruction by Banerjee and other state authorities during its January 8 search of the office of political-consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) in Kolkata in connection with a money-laundering probe.“Dr Ambedkar never conceived of such a situation… The Chief Minister along with hundreds of police officers entered the premises. They took away documents, stopped computer backups, and snatched security camera storage. This was not a standalone incident; there’s a pattern… Can I ask the same police to investigate allegations against the Chief Minister when I am myself facing FIRs from them,” Mehta said.He insisted that petitions by the ED and its officials under Article 32 of the Constitution — which empowers every person to directly move the Supreme Court for the enforcement of fundamental rights – were maintainable.“When a Chief Minister takes the law into her own hands, the fundamental rights of the investigating officers, as citizens, are violated,” Mehta said, citing previous instances of such interference.“There is a total failure of law and order in West Bengal. This is my legal submission. I will demonstrate how the rule of law is violated. This is a case where there is illegal smuggling of coal and the total amount runs to Rs 2,700 crore. The ED and their individual officers who are also citizens of India discharging their statutory functions are seeking protection of their fundamental rights,” the Solicitor General said.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said the CM was also the Home Minister of the state and ED officers can’t expect a fair and impartial probe in these cases by the state police.“There is an inherent danger if we keep entertaining this… the court will be flooded with Article 32 petitions from different state governments,” said the Bench which will resume the hearing on May 13.Earlier, the proceedings witnessed a sharp exchange between Mehta and senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy who represented the state government as she accused the ED of using the courtroom as a “social media weapon in a political campaign.”As she termed Mehta’s arguments as the behaviour of an “unelected crown”, the Solicitor General said, “I cannot behave like a street fighter. I maintain a dignified silence.”On the eve of the first phase of polling in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday came in for scathing criticism from the Supreme Court which made strong remarks against her for alleged interference in the Enforcement Directorate’s raids against political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata in January this year.The Bench said that constitutional stalwarts such as BR Ambedkar would not have envisaged such a situation created by her acts that put democracy in peril.“This is not a dispute between the State and the Union. A Chief Minister of any State cannot walk in the midst of an investigation, put the democracy in peril, and then say….. Don’t convert this into a dispute between the State and the Union. This is per se an act committed by an individual who happens to be the Chief Minister putting the whole democracy in jeopardy,” the Bench had said after Guruswamy questioned the maintainability of the ED’s petitions.