Kolkata, June 11 (IANS) A single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court has refused to pass any interim protective order on the decision of the new West Bengal Assembly Speaker, Rathindra Bose, to accept expelled Trinamool Congress legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the majority bloc of the Trinamool Congress in the House and also as the official Leader of the Opposition (LoP).

A petition was filed earlier this week challenging the Speaker’s decision. The matter came up for hearing before the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Krishna Rao on Thursday, and at the end of the hearing, the bench refused to accept the petitioner’s plea for an interim protective order on the Speaker’s decision.

Instead, the single-judge vacation bench said that the relevant order in the matter should first be placed before the court and advised all parties connected to the petition to approach the court only after the Speaker’s order is furnished before the bench.

However, during the hearing, the single-judge bench raised the question of whether a legislator — in this case Ritabrata Banerjee — who had been expelled from the party could be recognised as the Leader of the Opposition without the formal consent of the political party concerned.

Currently, the Trinamool Congress has 80 legislators in the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly. Among them, 60 legislators — a figure which Ritabrata Banerjee claimed had increased to 65 by June 1 — support the new bloc led by him. On the other hand, 20 legislators remain with the old bloc, continuing their allegiance to former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and the party’s General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee.

A Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe is already underway over alleged mismatches in the signatures of certain Trinamool Congress legislators in the crucial resolution submitted to the Speaker’s office nominating Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition, Asima Patra and Nayna Bandopadhyay as the two deputy leaders of the Opposition, and Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly.

The alleged mismatches were brought to the attention of the Speaker’s office by Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, following which the CID probe was initiated.

The Trinamool Congress immediately suspended Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha. Soon afterwards, 60 legislators led by Ritabrata Banerjee revolted and submitted a fresh resolution claiming to be the majority bloc in the Trinamool Congress legislative party.

The Speaker accepted the fresh resolution, and Ritabrata Banerjee was officially recognised as the Leader of the Opposition.

–IANS

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