Kolkata, Sep 21 (IANS): The Calcutta High Court on Monday allowed the Trinamool Congress’s ‘original but minority faction’ led by the former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee to continue the “partial” and “conditional” use of the reserves in the three bank accounts in the name of the party, despite its name and electoral symbol being frozen by the Election Commission.
A single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya made it clear that the Election Commission of India (ECI) order temporarily freezing the name of “All India Trinamool Congress” and the electoral symbol of “Flowers & Grass” will not have any impact on the court’s earlier order allowing the Mamata Banerjee faction’s rights over the accounts.
The Commission has not given any final decision and has just given an interim order regarding the name and symbol of All India Trinamool Congress for the by-elections for Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad district next month, he ruled.
Therefore, Justice Bhattacharya observed that after the interim ECI order, the court was not moving from its previous decision regarding “partial” and “conditional” use of the reserves in the three banks’ accounts. The right to spend money from the funds will remain with Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool till January 29, 2027, he added.
As per the ECI’s interim order last week, neither the Mamata Banerjee faction nor the Ritabrata Banerjee-led ‘rebel but majority’ side will be, for the time being, allowed to use either the party name or its election symbol.
In such a situation, Additional Advocate General Rajdeep Majumdar, appearing for the state government, argued that amid the ECI’s interim order, neither of the two factions should have the rights over the three bank accounts, considering that these were in the name of “All India Trinamool Congress”.
However, the court said that since the Commission had given an interim order, the court will remain in its previous position.
The state police froze three accounts of the All India Trinamool Congress in a private bank on charges of illegal transactions from there, and the Mamata Banerjee faction challenged the order in the Calcutta High Court.
Justice Bhattacharya earlier appointed a special counter-appointed officer to manage the spending bank accounts. On July 9 this year, the court ruled that the Mamata Banerjee faction will have control over the bank accounts for the time being. However, they will not be able to spend money unbridled. The court-appointed officer will allow it to use the funds for daily operations and salaries of its workers. The court said that this order will be in force till January 29 next year.
In addition, the court also asked the police to investigate the illegal transactions in those accounts and submit a report. Similarly, the police investigated and submitted a report during the hearing of the case on Monday.
