New Delhi: The Calcutta High Court Thursday refused to pass an interim order staying the decision of the West Bengal Speaker to recognise expelled Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly.
Justice Krishna Rao was hearing a petition filed by TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay challenging the appointment. The court has now posted the matter after three weeks, and directed all parties to file affidavits.
In its order, the court referred to Section 3 of the Bengal Legislative Assembly (Members’ Emolument) Act 1937, which has an explanation saying that the ‘Leader of Opposition’ means “that member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly who is for the time being the Leader in the State Assembly of the party in opposition to the State Government having the greatest numerical strength in the said Assembly”.
An explanation to the provision also asserts that if there is any doubt as to the party in opposition who has the greatest numerical strength or as to who is the Leader of such a party in the Assembly, the Speaker’s decision will be “final and conclusive”.
“In the case in hand, out of 80 elected members of the Legislative Assembly set up by AITC, 58 members secured greatest numerical strength by submitting their joint request and appearing before the Speaker in person,” the court then opined, noting that the TMC resolution nominating Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay was under dispute.
It further asserted that when Ritabrata was appointed as the LoP on 3 June, the Speaker conducted an enquiry. The court was also informed that on Monday, an Alipore court passed an order of stay from giving effect to the notice of expulsion issued against Ritabrata.
“Considering the above, this Court did not find any prima facie case and balance of convenience and inconvenience in favour of the petitioner for grant of interim order as prayed for by the petitioner, accordingly, interim order is refused,” it then ruled.
Ritabrata had written to West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, staking claim to the post of Leader of Opposition and claiming to have the backing of 58 TMC MLAs.
The development came days after TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to the Speaker to recognise Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition, citing “practice and procedure and precedent”.
In a press conference held after the meeting with the Speaker, Ritabrata said that more than two-thirds of MLAs elected on the TMC symbol had submitted their claim to the Speaker, “and the claim has been accepted”.
“This two-thirds strong legislative team of the Trinamool Congress inside the 18th West Bengal Legislative Assembly does not believe in ‘I’, it believes in ‘we’. Whatever norms are framed out, we have followed every norm, and that’s why we have been accepted as the principal opposition in the 18th West Bengal Legislative Assembly,” he told reporters.
Without claiming to be the real TMC, he urged party president and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee to be their “chief adviser” and give them “advice that will help us in strengthening our position as the opposition”.
Chattopadhyay had then filed a petition in the high court, challenging the decision of the Speaker, alleging that the Speaker had ignored the decision of the “political party” and had instead chosen to appoint a Leader of Opposition from a faction of the legislative party.
Last month, Abhishek Banerjee had submitted a letter to the Speaker, announcing the TMC’s decision to appoint Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of Opposition. However, two party MLAs, Ritabrata and Sandipan Saha, filed a complaint with the Speaker, alleging that the TMC general secretary had forged multiple signatures in the letter.
An FIR was then registered against Abhishek Banerjee and a probe was launched by the West Bengal CID. Following this, the two MLAs were expelled from the party for anti-party activities.
In a matter of days, at least 58 TMC MLAs declared themselves the principal opposition, while other party members have taken to social media and have been sharing letters sent to the Speaker to recognise Chattopadhyay for the post.
During the hearing Tuesday and Wednesday, the court questioned the Speaker’s decision to not decide the first proposal submitted by the TMC, while referring to the sequence of events in which the first proposal for the post came from the political party while the next proposal—which was accepted—came a few days later.
In his defence, the Speaker told the court that he had an “unprecedented” situation before him, and that 58 of 80 legislators who supported Ritabrata’s claim had personally appeared before him. The Speaker, therefore, asserted that the numerical strength favoured his appointment.
As against this, Chattopadhyay had alleged that the Speaker had erred in favouring the views of the legislative party, as against the “political party”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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