The Supreme Court on Friday permitted West Bengal Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and Secretary and The Returning Officer, West Bengal Legislative Assembly to withdraw their respective petitions and approach the Calcutta High Court.
The writ petition filed by Adhikari had been filed challenging the Assembly Speaker’s order of February 11, 2022 dismissing the application filed seeking disqualification of Mukul Roy from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
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The SLPs were preferred by the Secretary and The Returning Officer, West Bengal Legislative Assembly and the Speaker, West Bengal Legislative Assembly questioning an Order dated 28.09.2021 in Writ Petition preferred before the High Court, whereby the High Court directed the Speaker to place the order to be passed in the petition filed for disqualification of MLA Mukul Roy for defecting from the Bharatiya Janata Party to the ruling All India Trinamool Congress.
The Court Held:
“As the speaker has already decided the petition file for disqualification of Mr. Mukul Roy, the petitioner in W.P.(C) No. 117/2022 is permitted to withdraw this writ petition and approach the High Court under Article 226 of Constitution of India, as the said writ petition is intricately connected with the continuance of Mr. Mukul Roy as the Chairman of PAC. It is advisable that the said writ petition be listed with the writ petitions pending before the High Court. Needless to mention that the observations made by the High Court while passing the order dated 28.09.2021 are prima-facie and the parties are at liberty to take all contentions that are available to them in law. In view of the tenure of Mukul Roy as Chairman of PAC is only for a period of one year, we request the High Court to decide the pending writ petitions and the writ petition to be filed by the petitioner before the High Court expeditiously and not later than a period of 1 month.”
Owing to Mukul Roy’s term as Chairman of PAC is due to expire in four months, the Apex Court directed the Calcutta High Court to deal with the matters expeditiously within a month.