Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 1: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to interfere with a Calcutta High Court order denying permission to the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to operate four debit-frozen bank accounts holding around Rs 804 crore.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale directed the High Court to hear the matter expeditiously, while making it clear that it was not examining the merits of the dispute.

The bench noted that the Election Commission has frozen the party's name and symbol, while the larger question of entitlement to the funds in the four bank accounts remains pending before the High Court.

“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.

The plea before the Supreme Court challenged the freezing of the four accounts by the West Bengal Police following a cybercrime complaint filed by MLA Bishwanath Das.

The Calcutta High Court had on August 27 declined to pass an interim order permitting the Mamata Banerjee-led faction to operate the four accounts. The court observed that granting such relief could undermine an earlier order that allowed the party to meet its day-to-day expenses.

The High Court had directed the parties to file their affidavits setting out their respective positions, with the matter to be considered after the Durga Puja vacation.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya had observed that allowing the party to operate the four accounts through another interim order could render his earlier order “faulted”.

The TMC had argued before the High Court that there were shortcomings in the FIRs relating to the freezing of the accounts and sought permission to operate the four accounts maintained with public sector banks.

The Mamata Banerjee-led faction had approached the High Court after the police cyber cell froze the four accounts on July 7.

Earlier, on July 9, the High Court had appointed a special officer to oversee payments from three of the accounts for the party's day-to-day expenses. The court later extended that arrangement, allowing the faction to meet routine expenses from the accounts.

The dispute over the accounts is separate from the larger internal dispute over control of the TMC's name and election symbol, which is also pending before the Election Commission.