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.While hearing petitions filed by the ED and its officers, a Bench of Justice PK Mishra and Justice NV Anjaria said that constitutional stalwarts such as BR Ambedkar would not have conceived of such a situation created by her acts that put the democracy in peril.“This is not a dispute between the state and the Centre. 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 said.The top court’s comments came after senior counsel Menaka Guruswamy questioned the maintainability of the ED’s petitions and sought to emphasise that a petition under Article 32 couldn’t have been filed.As senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra said the ED and its officers should have gone to a magistrate, the Bench said it couldn’t ignore the ground situation in West Bengal.Referring to the case where several judicial officers were held hostage, the Bench said, “And you say the petitioner should have gone to a magistrate under Section 200! We cannot shut our eyes to the reality of what’s happening (in West Bengal). We cannot lose sight of the practical situation which is present in the state.“Don’t compel us to make observations. This is not a litigation between Ram vs Shyam. This is an extraordinary situation where the contours are totally different. The court has to take decisions keeping in view socio-political realities. It’s an ever evolving process,” the Bench noted.The ED had on January 8 conducted raids at the premises of I-PAC and at the residence of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata as a part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore coal pilferage case. Mamata and others allegedly caused obstructions during the raids.The Supreme Court had on January 15 issued notice to the West Bengal Government, Chief Minister Mamata, state’s DGP Rajeev Kumar and others on the ED’s petition seeking a CBI probe against them for allegedly obstructing the agency’s raid at the I-PAC office and premises of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata on January 8.As the West Bengal Government questioned the maintainability of the ED’s petition under Article 32 of the Constitution over alleged obstruction by the Chief Minister during its raid, the top court had on March 24 wondered if the ED officials could go to the state government in such a situation.