Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday slammed West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay and directed him to make a clear stand on on Mukul Roy's disqualification petition on PAC chairman post by October 7.
According to court sources it has been learnt that the High Court had even claimed that the Speaker is not abiding to the constitution.
“Application was sent to the Speaker long back that PAC chairman post should not be given to Mukul Roy but despite that, no steps were taken. The Speaker is not abiding by the constitution but by October 7, he will have to clear his stand,” stated the High Court sources.
Soon after the hearing, TMC MP Saugata Roy said that the High Court cannot fix any time for the Speaker.
“This matter will be sent to the Supreme Court to ascertain the supremacy of the Speaker. The High Court doesn’t have the right to cut short the power of the Speaker. The Speaker will decide on the fate of the PAC chairman post,” said Saugata.
West Bengal BJP spokesperson welcoming the verdict said that the Calcutta High Court has taken a ‘correct’ step.
CPI (M) leader and senior politburo member Sujan Chakraborty said that he also welcomes the decision of Calcutta High Court.
“The Speaker is working at the behest of the party. Even I have asked him four years back to disqualify the MLA post of a former CPI (M) leader who later defected to TMC but was of no avail,” said Sujan.
Notably, BJP Krishnanagar (North) MLA Mukul Roy had defected back to the ruling Trinamool Congress on June 11 and soon after that the BJP didn’t want the Speaker to make Roy the chairman of PAC.
In a list with probable names for PAC chairman, BJP had submitted a list to the Speaker which didn’t mention Mukul Roy’s name but later the Speaker claiming that Mukul’s name was in the BJP’s list for which he had decided to give the post to Mukul Roy.
