The legal battle over the mass transfer of IAS and IPS officers in West Bengal reached the Calcutta High Court on Monday. During the hearing before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, the Election Commission of India (ECI) questioned the maintainability of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging its transfer orders. The ECI argued that under Article 324, it has absolute authority to reshuffle the administration to ensure fair polls. Senior Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, representing the petitioner, countered by asking if “President’s Rule” had been imposed in the state, labeling the unilateral transfers of the Chief Secretary and DGP as a violation of federalism. The Court has scheduled the next hearing for Wednesday.