Ritabrata Banerjee to remain Bengal LoP till decision on plea within 2 months, says HC | India News
NEW DELHI: Ritabrata Banerjee will continue as the leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly for now as the Calcutta high court division bench on Tuesday declined to disturb his appointment at the current stage.The bench of Justices Shampa Sarkar and Ajay Kumar Gupta directed that the challenge to his appointment be decided by a single judge within two months.The case was filed by Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, a TMC MLA from the Mamata Banerjee camp, who had challenged assembly speaker Rathindra Bose’s decision to appoint Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition.The division bench’s order means that Banerjee will remain in the post until the single bench decides Chattopadhyay’s petition.Chattopadhyay had approached the high court after the Speaker rejected his claim to the post and appointed Ritabrata Banerjee instead.The matter had earlier come before a single bench, which on June 18 declined to grant any interim relief against the speaker’s decision. Chattopadhyay then challenged that order before the division bench.The division bench has now directed the single bench to hear the challenge to the speaker’s decision and reach a decision within two months. Until then, Ritabrata Banerjee will continue as leader of opposition.Ritabrata, Sandipan Saha (who is now deputy LoP), and several other rebel MLAs backing BJP-led NDA have alleged their signatures were forged on a May 6 letter sent to the assembly speaker proposing Sobhandeb’s name as LoP – a case making headlines as “signgate” and being investigated by Bengal police CID.
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Sandipan called high court’s refusal to intervene a “moral victory”. “Ritabrata and I had initiated this fight. We brought the alleged signature irregularities in TMC’s letter to the speaker’s notice. The issue then went to court. Today’s victory in HC confirms that law is on our side,” he said.High court’s refusal to hit pause has left Ritabrata firmly in the saddle for now, but courtroom battles and political trench warfare inside TMC show few signs of easing. “Of 80 Trinamool MLAs, 65 are with us. Of the remaining 15, one is in jail. For the time being, 14 are on the other side. Let us wait and watch,” Ritabrata said.
