The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to grant interim relief to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) faction in a case of four debit-frozen bank accounts holding around ₹804 crore. A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale refused to interfere with the Calcutta High Court's earlier order and asked the High Court to expedite the hearing of the matter.
The case is linked to a long-running dispute of control and identity of Trinamool Congress. The Election Commission has frozen the party's original name and election symbol as rival factions challenge it in the name and election symbol contestation. The Supreme Court has said the larger issue of which faction is entitled to the funds remains connected with that and is yet to be dealt with.
The Supreme Court has declined to interfere with the Calcutta HC order.
The Supreme Court said it was not inclined to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 136 against the interim order of the Calcutta High Court. The bench made it clear that it was not going into the merits of the dispute at this stage and instead asked the High Court to expedite the proceedings.
The court's position means that the four bank accounts will remain debit-frozen for now. The Mamata Banerjee-led faction had approached the Supreme Court after the Calcutta High Court refused to permit it to operate them until the proceedings were pending.
The four accounts are kept with public sector banks and had been frozen by the West Bengal Police. The TMC faction had challenged the freezing, arguing that there were deficiencies in the FIRs and proceedings on the basis of which the accounts were frozen.
TMC cites impact on party operations
The senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was speaking for the Mamata Banerjee-led faction in the hearing, said the freezing of the accounts is affecting the party’s political activities.
According to the arguments of Singhvi, the party needed about ₹12.15 crore every month to cover its operations and that of the party’s operational cost. He said the freezing of accounts was to obstruct the faction’s political functioning.
These were submissions made on behalf of the TMC faction and were not findings by the Supreme Court. The bench ultimately declined to grant the requested relief.
Government Raises Allegation Over ₹35 Crore Deposit
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea on behalf of the state and referred to the factional dispute within the TMC. He pointed out that the case was about competing claims over which group represented the actual Trinamool Congress.
Mehta also told the court that a complaint was made alleging that a personal assistant of the Banerjee-led faction had deposited around ₹35 crore in cash in the accounts. He said an investigation was going on.
The Supreme Court did take note of the submissions made during the hearing before refusing to interfere with the High Court order. The allegations are still part of the investigation and have not been established as findings of guilt against the party or its representatives.
What did the Calcutta High Court say?
The Calcutta High Court had on August 27 refused to make an interim order for the Mamata-led faction to operate the four accounts. It had already made arrangements for the political entity to meet its day-to-day expenses using funds from three other debit-frozen accounts, said the High Court.
The High Court had appointed a special officer on July 9 to oversee payments required for the political party's day-to-day functioning from these three accounts. The arrangement was intended to ensure that the basic administrative and legal expenses would continue while the wider dispute was still pending.
The High Court therefore found that allowing the TMC faction to operate the other four accounts at this stage could undermine the earlier arrangement. The Supreme Court had previously upheld the High Court's order on the mechanism to meet day-to-day expenses.
TMC Name And Symbol Dispute Still Pending
The bank account case takes place against the background of a larger dispute over the TMC's identity. The Election Commission is investigating rival claims to the party and its traditional “Flowers and Grass” symbol.
On September 28, the Supreme Court ordered that the Election Commission would decide the issue in a certain time frame. The rival factions were given four weeks to file their pleadings, after which the poll panel would decide the matter within three months. The Supreme Court said it did not have an opinion on which party name or symbol belonged to which group.
The Election Commission had earlier frozen the original party name and symbol as an interim measure and assigned separate names and symbols to the rival groups for upcoming bypolls. The Mamata Banerjee-led faction has challenged that decision before the Supreme Court.
What happens next?
With the Supreme Court not interfering, the immediate question of the four debit-frozen accounts will come before the Calcutta High Court. The Supreme Court has asked the High Court to expedite the hearing rather than settle the dispute itself.
So the case remains closely linked to the broader legal and organisational fight over the TMC's name, election symbol and control over party resources. For now, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction does not have permission to operate the four accounts with an estimated ₹804 crore of assets in their hands while the day-to-day budget for basic expenses and cash management is governed by earlier court directives.
