The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to allow the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction to operate four bank accounts that have been frozen for debit transactions, leaving the issue to be decided by the Calcutta High Court.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale said it was not inclined to interfere with the High Court’s order refusing interim relief to the faction. The Supreme Court, however, requested the High Court to expedite the hearing in the matter.
The bench noted that the Election Commission had frozen the party symbol and that the broader dispute over who was entitled to the money in the accounts was still awaiting adjudication.
Without examining the merits of the dispute, the court declined to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution.
High Court Had Refused Interim Access
The appeal arose from an August 27 order of the Calcutta High Court, which had refused to permit the Mamata Banerjee-led faction to operate four debit-frozen accounts holding around Rs 804 crore.
The High Court had observed that granting such interim relief would undermine its earlier arrangement allowing the political party to meet day-to-day expenses.
The TMC faction had sought permission to operate the accounts maintained with public sector banks. The accounts had been debit-frozen by the West Bengal Police.
In its plea, the faction had questioned the freezing action and claimed that there were lacunae in the FIRs connected with the decision to restrict debit operations in the accounts.
With the Supreme Court declining to intervene, the dispute will now continue before the Calcutta High Court, which has been asked to take up the matter expeditiously.
