Calcutta HC declines urgent hearing on TMC plea over frozen bank accounts

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to grant an urgent hearing on a petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has challenged the freezing of three of the party's bank accounts holding around Rs 440 crore.

A single-judge bench of justice Saugata Bhattacharya rejected the plea for a fast-track hearing, observing that the matter would be taken up in the normal course as per the scheduled cause list.

The bank accounts were frozen earlier this month after the police instructed the private lender to halt operations following complaints from the rival "rebel but majority" faction of the TMC, led by expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee.

The first complaint came from former state minister and ex-party treasurer Aroop Biswas, who alleged the possibility of fund misappropriation and urged the bank to freeze the accounts. Subsequently, several MLAs aligned with the rebel faction approached the police with a similar request, prompting the police to direct the bank to freeze the accounts.

The faction loyal to former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee then moved the high court, contending that the freezing of the accounts was unjustified and seeking an expedited hearing.

However, justice Bhattacharya declined the request for urgency, ruling that the petition would be heard according to the court's regular schedule.

During Tuesday's proceedings, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the West Bengal government, informed the court that he had received the case papers only on Monday.

"I received the case documents yesterday and will be ready for the hearing on 2 July," Mehta told the court.

The case is now expected to come up for hearing on 2 July, when the court will examine the legality of the police directive that led to the freezing of the party's accounts amid the escalating internal battle within the Trinamool Congress.

With IANS inputs