West Bengal Speaker Moves Supreme Court Against HC Order On Mukul Roy's PAC Chairmanship: AG S.N Mookerjee Informs Calcutta HC

Advocate General S.N Mookerjee informed the Calcutta High Court on Thursday that West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court on the challenge to the appointment of TMC MLA Mukul Roy as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

On June 17, a disqualification petition had been moved before the Speaker by BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari against Mukul Roy on the grounds of defection under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj vide order dated September 28 had directed the Speaker to decide on the disqualification petition against Mukul Roy and place on record the order passed by October 7. The Bench had ruled that the issue pertaining to disqualification of TMC MLA Mukul Roy as Member of the Legislative Assembly is co-related with him being the Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts.

When the matter came up before the Bench comprising Justices I.P. Mukerji and Aniruddha Roy on Thursday, the Court recorded in its order,

"Learned Advocate General states that such an order has till date not been made by the Speaker and that a special leave petition has been filed before the Supreme Court against the said order of the Division Bench."

Accordingly, the Bench directed the matter to be listed for further hearing on November 15.

The High Court vide order dated September 28 had observed that it is a 'constitutional convention' to appoint a leader of the Opposition as the PAC Chairman of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The Court had also made scathing observations against the Speaker for failing to discharge his constitutional duty. 

"In the case in hand as is evident from the facts on record there is failure on the part of the Speaker to discharge his constitutional duty coupled with established admitted constitutional conventions. Apparently he has worked on dictates. Finally, he was caught in the web knitted by him", the Court had recorded in its September 28 order. 

Background

On July 9, Mukul Roy had been appointed as the Chairman of PAC by the Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly for the year 2021-2022. The plea filed before the Court had contended that on June 11, without officially resigning from the BJP or as the MLA of Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, Mukul Roy had defected to the TMC party on June 11, 2021.

MLA Mukul Roy had initially contested the West Bengal State Assembly Elections 2021 from the Krishnanagar Uttar constituency on behalf of BJP and had subsequently emerged victorious. However, on June 11, without officially resigning from the BJP or as the MLA of Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, the respondent had defected to the TMC party on June 11, 2021, the plea had contended.

Case Title: Ambika Roy v. The Speaker, West Bengal Legislative Assembly and Ors

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