The Supreme Court recorded that Mahua Moitra will inform the Nadia administration a day before her visit so Circuit House accommodation can be provided as per protocol, with the Bench calling the September 1 circular retaliatory.
The Supreme Court has granted the Union and the State of West Bengal time to file a counter to Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s writ petition alleging obstruction in carrying out MPLADS work in her Krishnanagar constituency. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta objected to the maintainability of the plea, while Justice Joymalya Bagchi flagged a September 1 letter requiring an MP to give three days’ notice before visiting the Circuit House.
The Supreme Court has declined to interfere with the Calcutta High Court’s order on the All India Trinamool Congress’s plea to operate four frozen bank accounts, observing that, with the Election Commission having frozen the party symbol, the larger question of who is entitled to operate the accounts has to be decided. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued the party was being paralysed, while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea.
The Election Commission of India has told the Supreme Court that it is wrong to claim that deletions made during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls cost the Trinamool Congress 31 West Bengal Assembly seats, arguing that the figures relied upon improperly club adjudicated deletions with removals of absentee, shifted, dead and duplicate voters. […]
The Calcutta High Court has questioned the Election Commission over its decision to allot the ‘Envelope’ election symbol, earlier used by the Indian Secular Front, to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool faction for the upcoming by-polls. Hearing the ISF’s plea that the allotment was confusing voters in an election it too was contesting, the Court asked why the ECI had chosen that particular symbol when many others were available, observing that it should have kept it reserved.
The Supreme Court has indicated that the Election Commission should decide, expeditiously and on a day-to-day basis, the dispute over the Trinamool Congress name and symbol, on Mamata Banerjee’s plea challenging the ECI’s interim order freezing the symbol amid a rift with a rival faction. Kapil Sibal argued the interim order left the party without an effective remedy in the middle of an election; the Court, noting the bye-election was under way, focused on securing an early final decision.
The Supreme Court has orally observed that the Lok Sabha Speaker is expected to expeditiously decide the Tenth Schedule disqualification petitions filed by Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee against 20 party MPs who have sought to break away. Invoking the three-month norm laid down in Keisham Meghachandra Singh, the Court declined to issue directions but asked the Solicitor General to propose a timeline. The rebel MPs said they would file replies within four weeks.