The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday granted Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee time till August 12 to file her affidavit in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking removal of Mukul Roy from the post of Speaker of Public Accounts. . Committee of State Legislative Assembly (PAC).
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj will hear the matter the next day.
The court also allowed other concerned parties to submit their respective affidavits within the same time frame.
Roy was appointed by the Speaker on 9 July as the PAC President for the year 2021-2022, despite the major opposition BJP submitting a list of at least six candidates for the post which did not include Roy.
The petitioner, BJP MLA Ambika Roy, submitted that Roy is currently under the scanner of the country’s anti-defection law, as he had entered the Trinamool Congress on June 11 this year, though he won the state election from Krishnanagar North seat. From BJP or on BJP ticket without officially resigning as MLA.
The petition seeks to quash Roy’s appointment on the ground that the post of PAC president has traditionally been held by an elected member of the main opposition party.
Speaker Biman Banerjee is also hearing a petition filed by Leader of Opposition in the House Suvendu Adhikari against Roy’s appointment.
Appearing for the Speaker, Advocate General Kishor Dutta had earlier opposed the petition on the ground that the Speaker has sole authority in the Assembly and it was for him to decide who was eligible for the post.
Claiming that Article 212 of the Constitution gives the Speaker final authority in the business of the House in which a court cannot interfere, Dutta argued that the PIL was not maintainable and should be dismissed.
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