Can civil court override EC to recognise TMC’s rebel faction, asks HC | Kolkata News

Reserves Order On Relief To Mamata Faction Over ED’s Freezing Of 3 Accounts

Cakcutta High Court

Kolkata: Can the civil court take the power of the Election Commission by recognising the rebel faction of Trinamool Congress, the Calcutta High Court asked on Monday while reserving its order on whether any interim relief could be provided to the Mamata Banerjee faction on ED’s freezing of three private bank accounts.An Alipore court, in an ex parte interim order on Friday, restrained the Mamata faction from disturbing the rival camp, which it prima facie held was “the only lawful executive body authorised to administer the affairs of the All India Trinamool Congress till Aug 6”. The lower court also restrained the Mamata faction from using the accounts.ED informed this to the HC on Monday after the Mamata faction moved the bench of Justice Krishna Rao seeking quashing of the central agency’s ECIR and seeking the same interim relief provided by Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya in another case against state police for freezing the same accounts.The three HDFC accounts in question together have Rs 440 crore. They were first frozen on the order of the police. A case was filed before Justice Bhattacharyya, who on July 9 directed that the Mamata faction can withdraw for day-to-day expenses under the supervision of the special officer, retired judge Justice Subrata Talukdar.Additional solicitor general SV Raju, appearing for ED, asked if AITC represented by Dola Sen could move the HC when the Alipore court had restrained them from “interfering with the party’s administration”.Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on behalf of Sen, said: “The order is dated July 7, ex parte, without notice, without my presence.”“Today, there is supposedly a triple-engine sarkar. The only objective of ED is to delay the matter… Never before has a recognised political party’s nine bank accounts been frozen in this manner. They froze this while the opposing faction of TMC is yet to be recognised as a symbol-holding party by the ECI. What is happening is first the state police and then ED collaterally are getting them recognised de facto as the only TMC. Income-Tax, CBI and ED are only too over-eager to recognise them,” Singhvi argued.Justice Rao queried: “Who is having the party is to be decided by ECI. If the civil court is deciding, what is the duty of the EC? It is about the recognition of the (national working) committee… internal recognition with regard to majority. Can civil courts can take the jurisdiction under Schedule 10 of the Constitution?”Senior advocate Kishore Datta, representing the Mamata faction, argued that for ED to begin an investigation of proceeds of crime, there had to be a predicate offence. He said the ED’s probe was over allegations that around Rs 160 crore was illicitly diverted from party funds to a private aviation firm, Carewell Aviation India Private Limited, to purchase aircraft and helicopters.“The amount mentioned by ED is at most Rs 160 crore. The bank said the amount in these accounts is Rs 440 crore. ED is investigating the aircraft issue, which does not have a predicate offence,” Datta submitted.Deputy solicitor general Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi submitted that ED only froze three accounts and that the petitioners have another account with Rs 164 crore that has not been frozen. But Datta called it “half-baked information”.Ritabrata’s counsel also sought to be heard in the case but Justice Rao denied that, asking them to come before the bench with an application.