Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has refused to interfere, for now, with the West Bengal Assembly Speaker’s decision to recognise expelled Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP), ensuring that he will continue in the post while the legal challenge plays out.

A single-judge vacation bench led by Justice Krishna Rao declined to grant any interim “protective” order against the Speaker’s move, effectively denying a stay on the existing interim arrangement and leaving Banerjee’s LoP status undisturbed at this stage.

The court has instead sought the full text of the Speaker’s order recognising Banerjee, and indicated that substantive examination of the case will proceed only after that order is formally placed on record.


Challenge to Speaker’s decision

The controversy stems from the decision of newly elected Speaker Rathindra Bose to recognise Ritabrata Banerjee -- a Trinamool MLA who has been expelled from the party for anti-party activities -- as both the leader of the largest bloc of TMC legislators in the House and as the official Leader of the Opposition in the 18th West Bengal Assembly.

Banerjee’s elevation came after a group of rebel TMC MLAs passed a resolution backing him as their leader and conveyed this to the Speaker, claiming the support of around 58–60 legislators.

The Speaker accepted this fresh resolution and formally recognised Banerjee as LoP, a move that the Trinamool leadership has described as unconstitutional and politically motivated.

TMC veteran Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and the party leadership challenged the Speaker’s decision before the High Court, arguing that an expelled member who does not belong to any recognised legislative party cannot be treated as the LoP of that party in the House.


Court questions Speaker, but stops short of stay

During earlier hearings, Justice Rao pointedly asked whether the Speaker could ignore the name proposed by the majority political party for the LoP post and instead appoint “some other individual” based on a rival resolution. The bench also recorded concern over the fact that the person recognised as LoP “did not belong to any political party” in the formal sense, given his expulsion from the TMC.

Despite these sharp observations, the court has so far declined to grant TMC’s request for an immediate stay on Banerjee’s appointment. On June 11, the vacation bench refused to pass any interim protective order, telling the parties that the Speaker’s detailed order must first be produced before the court for scrutiny.

 

Political stakes for TMC and Banerjee

For the Trinamool Congress, led by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the case is both a legal battle and a political test. The party maintains that the LoP must be nominated by the authorised leadership of the largest Opposition party, not by a faction of rebels claiming majority support. TMC leaders have argued that allowing an expelled MLA to hold the LoP position undermines party discipline and sets a dangerous precedent for floor splits.

Ritabrata Banerjee, on the other hand, has projected his appointment as a victory for “internal democracy” within the legislature party. He has publicly claimed that a majority of TMC MLAs in the House are backing him, and has accused the party leadership of trying to oust him through court rather than accepting the internal shift in support.

Agencies