Calcutta HC reserves order on plea seeking interim stay on LoP appointment
Times of India | 17 July 2026
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Friday reserved its order on a plea seeking interim stay on the speaker’s appointment of Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of opposition in the Bengal assembly after arguments concluded before a division bench of justices Shampa Sarkar and Ajay Kumar Gupta.
The court will decide if the speaker was right to appoint Ritabrata LoP when the concerned political party had selected Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as LoP. The plea was placed before the division bench after a single-judge bench decided against granting the interim stay.
Counsel for the speaker, additional advocate general Bilwadal Bhattacharya, submitted that out of 294 members, 58 MLAs had filed their application — both factions from the same party. “Unless or until there is action under the 10th schedule, there is no processing under the 10th schedule,” Bhattacharya said.
Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, representing Sobhandeb, submitted that the party had sent a letter to the speaker naming Sobhanded LoP, but received no response. He alleged there was “malice” in the speaker’s act in not replying to the letter and instead appointing Ritabrata LoP on June 3 and not uploading the appointment on the public domain.
On the specific question of not uploading the letter, the HC observed: “Legislative decisions are not always meant to be posted in the public domain.”