No relief for Mamata camp as High Court allows Ritabrata to continue as LoP for now

The Division Bench of Justice Shampa Sarkar and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta, in its order, stated that the decision of Speaker Rathindra Bose to appoint Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition was an “interim decision,” and therefore declined to stay the decision. It also made it clear that Ritabrata Banerjee will remain as the LoP as an interim arrangement.

The Division Bench also ordered that the single judge bench would also look into the allegations raised in the petition and all the parties would submit their affidavits before the matter is decided.

Following the Assembly election results, the TMC had nominated Sobhandeb Chatterjee for the LoP post. However, a group of rebel TMC MLAs, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, complained to the Speaker, alleging that the letter of support for Sobhandeb had forged signatures of several party MLAs. On a complaint filed by the Assembly Secretariat, police registered an FIR, and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) later took over the probe.

The Speaker later appointed Ritabrata Banerjee as the LoP, who claimed to have the support of a majority of the 80 TMC MLAs.

Meanwhile, Sobhandeb Chatterjee moved the High Court, challenging Ritabrata’s appointment as LoP.

On June 19, the single bench of Justice Krishna Rao refused to issue an interim order against the Speaker’s decision and scheduled the next hearing on July 28. In the meantime, Shobhandeb moved the Division Bench against the single judge bench’s order.