The Calcutta High Court on Thursday (June 11, 2026) questioned the Speaker’s decision to recognise the expelled Trinamool Congress MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) of the West Bengal Assembly without the consent of the political party.
While hearing a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress against Speaker Rathindra Bose’s move to accept a group of 59 rebel MLAs’ proposal to recognise Mr. Ritabrata Banerjee as the LoP instead of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the Single Bench of the court, presided over by Justice Krishna Rao, asked the State, “The person, who was appointed as the LoP, doesn’t belong to any political party. He was expelled. Can the Speaker recognise a rebel leader as the LoP without the consent of a political party?”
In response, the State, represented by Additional Advocate General (AAG) Bilwadal Bhattacharya, sought time to file an affidavit with all relevant records, including the order under challenge. The court scheduled the next hearing on June 16.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate and TMC MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay argued that the Speaker’s decision “hit the Constitution’s basic structure” by violating its tenth schedule that settled law governing the relationship between a political party and its legislature party.
Seeking an interim stay on the Speaker’s decision, Mr. Bandyopadhyay told the court, “Who will be appointed as the LoP? There is a legal structure that is usually followed. The order will be carried from the consent of the political party to which he belongs to, not the legislature party. This rebel group is not willing to be merged to any other political party while two of their MLAs have been expelled. Independent MLAs are not in any political party. In such a situation, there should be no LoP.”
He argued that this matter was not about whether “the signatures were right or wrong. It was only about the consent of a political party. After the party expelled him, it was not even challenged. How could the Speaker recognise him as the LoP? The Speaker’s latest decision was not even uploaded on the website or in any public domain.”
At least 59 out of the 80 MLAs of the rebel camp of the Trinamool Congress has chosen, a relatively young Mr. Ritabrata Banerjee (47) as Leader of the Opposition instead of a 10-time MLA Mr. Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay (82).
A letter nominating Mr. Chattopadhyay as the LoP was submitted to the Speaker on May 20, but MLAs Mr. Ritabarta Banerjee and Sandipan Saha alleged that their signatures were forged and ended up being expelled from the party. A First Information Report has been registered on the basis of complaint of the expelled MLAs and investigation has reached the doorstep of national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had signed the letter.
Mr. Bandyopadhyay further argued that a resolution to nominate Mr. Chattopadhyay as the LoP was passed by the TMC legislature party in a meeting on May 6 but it was not registered in a written proposal. “So, another meeting was called on May 19 to get those signatures but the May 6 was put as the official date for the proposal when the resolution was taken. At least 70 MLAs signed it that day while many were also sending their signatures online. The resolution was forwarded to the Speaker and also the every member by Mr. Abhishek Banerjee on May 20. After the party expelled two MLAs Mr. Ritabrata Banerjee and Mr. Sandipan Saha, the decision was again forwarded to everyone. It is clear that the party’s decisions have been communicated every time whether the formal written resolution was there in place or not.”
Meanwhile, the AAG Mr. Bhattacharya argued that the petition suffered from incomplete pleadings and that no specific prayer had been made for quashing the Speaker’s decision. He submitted that Assembly records could be obtained through the procedure prescribed under the House Rules and sought time to place the relevant materials before the court.
Published - June 11, 2026 10:17 pm IST
Bengal / court / All India Trinamool Congress
Source: The Hindu - India News
