The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction to operate four debit-frozen bank accounts with public sector banks.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale said it was not inclined to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order which refused to allow the plea.
The top court noted that the Election Commission has frozen the symbol and therefore the larger issue as to who is entitled to the amount is pending adjudication.
"We refrain from going into the merits. We are not inclined to exercise our jurisdiction under Article 136. We request the high court to expedite the hearing," the bench said.
TMC cites monthly expenses
During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the TMC faction led by Banerjee, submitted that the state police has frozen bank accounts because it is opposed to a party and wants to stop its political activities.
Singhvi said the party required a minimum of Rs 12.15 crore per month for sustaining its operations and expenses.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed Singhvi's plea and contended that there was a factional dispute in which one side claimed to be the real Trinamool Congress.
He told the court that a complaint was made that a PA of the Banerjee faction of the TMC had allegedly deposited Rs 35 crore through cash into those accounts.There was an investigation under progress in this regard, Mehta said.
The top court noted Mehta's submission and dismissed the plea.
What did Calcutta High Court say?
The Calcutta High Court on August 27 had refused to pass an interim order allowing the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction to operate four debit-frozen bank accounts holding around Rs 804 crore, observing that granting such relief would undermine its earlier order permitting the political party to meet day-to-day expenses.
The TMC had sought permission to operate four accounts with public sector banks that were debit-frozen by the West Bengal Police, claiming there were lacunae in the FIRs related to the freezing.
The state government had submitted in the high court that steps had been taken in the criminal prosecution in accordance with law and sought permission for the police to continue its investigation.
After hearing the parties, the high court had said in view of his July 9 order appointing a special officer to clear and meet the day-to-day expenses of the political entity from three other debit-frozen accounts, no further order was required at this stage regarding the four accounts.
A report by the cyber crime police station of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate on the investigation was also placed before the court.
TMC had challenged account freezing
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction had moved the high court challenging the freezing of the four bank accounts by police cyber cell on July 7.
The state police had earlier debit-frozen three other private bank accounts of the TMC, which was challenged before the high court, the party's lawyer Menaka Guruswamy said.
The court had on July 9 appointed a special officer to clear and meet the political party's day-to-day expenses from those three accounts.
The order was upheld by the Supreme Court after it was challenged.
Holding that the court had already taken care of the TMC's day-to-day expenses, the high court had said no further order was required at this stage regarding the four PSU bank accounts for the "existence of a political party".
The court said it had already decided not to permit the petitioner to operate the bank accounts in their entirety while the petition remained pending.