India’s Supreme Court rejects TMC faction’s plea over frozen accounts

India’s Supreme Court has dismissed a plea by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction seeking permission to operate four bank accounts whose debits have been frozen. A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B.

Varale said it was not inclined to interfere with an earlier Calcutta High Court order refusing the request. The Supreme Court said the Election Commission had frozen the party symbol and that the broader question of which faction was entitled to the funds remained pending adjudication. “We refrain from going into the merits.

We are not inclined to exercise our jurisdiction under Article 136. We request high court to expedite the hearing,” the bench said. The Calcutta High Court had rejected an interim application on August 27.

The four accounts, held with public sector banks, contained around ₹804 crore, according to the court report. The High Court said allowing the faction to operate the accounts could undermine an earlier order that permitted the political party to meet its day-to-day expenses. The TMC faction had argued that there were shortcomings in the first information reports linked to the freezing of the accounts.

It had sought access to the funds while the wider dispute was being considered. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the debit freeze in place for now. The material does not state when the Calcutta High Court will decide the underlying dispute, although the Supreme Court requested that the hearing be expedited.

The case concerns competing claims relating to the party’s funds and symbol. The Supreme Court said it was not deciding the merits of those claims at this stage. The order therefore maintains the existing position: the accounts cannot be operated by the faction under the requested interim arrangement, while the High Court continues to consider the wider legal issues.