Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday questioned the West Bengal assembly speaker regarding a seven-day pause in deciding that Ritabrata Banerjee, and not Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, would be the leader of the opposition.
Court Questions Delay in Speaker's Decision
Justice Krishna Rao questioned the delay in the speaker's decision to object to the first proposal signed by TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on May 20. "If you are relying on this complaint (filed by two MLAs alleging signature forgery in the resolution submitted on May 19), this is May 27. The correspondence is of May 20. So you have waited for the objections?" Justice Rao asked additional advocate general Billwadal Bhattacharya, who represented the speaker.
Speaker's Duty on Party Proposals
"If the speaker (of West Bengal Legislative Assembly) has two proposals of the same party, what is the duty of the speaker? Can he suo motu recognise one?" the HC asked, questioning the speaker's decision to choose Banerjee as LoP over Chattopadhyay, whose name was proposed by the political party.
The AAG submitted that the political party was asked to provide the resolution copy and the attendance book, and it was communicated that everything would be placed before the speaker on May 25. Meanwhile, on May 27, the complaint by two TMC MLAs came up that there was forgery of signatures in the May 19 letter. It was also pointed out by the court that the two MLAs were expelled by the party on June 1.
Speaker's Authority Under Emoluments Act
The AAG submitted that the speaker can decide under the West Bengal Emoluments Act. "Before this petition, there was no request received by the speaker for detachment. Expelling from a political party is not detachment for the assembly," he said.
Justice Rao asked the AAG how the speaker could decide which proposal was right or wrong without calling the house. "I don't want to comment on the complaint. If only two people filed the complaint, how is that changing the 70 MLAs to 58?... I am failing to understand. Your speaker is so keen with 58 MLAs but when 78 MLAs came, he started all enquiries. Why?" the judge asked.
Arguments to Continue
The AAG submitted that it is the speaker's duty that the moment he receives a resolution, he has to conduct some form of an enquiry. During this process, he said, it was visible that signatures of many MLAs were not matching with the assembly records. The arguments will continue on Wednesday.
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