SC declines to hear Mamata Banerjee’s plea against freezing of four TMC bank accounts

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear a plea filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress challenging the freezing of four of its Indian Bank accounts by the West Bengal Police, Live Law reported.

A bench noted that the matter was pending before the Calcutta High Court and declined to exercise its powers under Article 136 of the Constitution, which allows the Supreme Court to hear appeals against judgements of courts and tribunals.

The court said that it would not go into the merits of the case, noting that the Election Commission had frozen the party’s symbol in an interim order. It also noted that the larger question about which TMC faction would be entitled to use the money lying in the accounts was still pending.

On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to decide within four months which faction is authorised to use the party’s name and symbol.

On Thursday, however, the bench requested the High Court to expedite the hearing.

The accounts were debit-frozen following a criminal investigation initiated by the West Bengal Police over a complaint filed by MLA Biswanath Das.

The case is separate from the matter involving three HDFC bank accounts of the party that were frozen by the Enforcement Directorate.

On August 11, the Supreme Court declined to interfere...

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