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Appointment of Mukul Roy as PAC head violates convention, BJP MLA tells HC
Mukul Roy, who left the BJP and returned to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on June 11, was appointed PAC chairman by speaker Biman Banerjee on July 9
Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Ambika Roy on Tuesday told the Calcutta high court that appointment of Mukul Roy as chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) of the West Bengal assembly violates a five-decade-old convention under which an opposition party MLA gets the post.
Mukul Roy, who left the BJP and returned to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on June 11, was appointed PAC chairman by speaker Biman Banerjee on July 9.
On June 18, leader of the opposition in the assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, submitted a petition before the speaker saying Mukul Roy, the legislator from Kishnanagar North constituency in Nadia district, should be disqualified under anti-defection law as he did not resign from the BJP before switching sides.
While hearing Ambika Roy’s petition on Tuesday, the division bench of acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj said the appeal for Mukul Roy’s disqualification as an MLA is lying before the speaker and not the court, lawyers aware of the hearing said.
Appearing for Ambika Roy, senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan told the court that the speaker incorrectly assumed that Mukul Roy was in the BJP when he filed his nomination papers on June 25 for chairmanship of the PAC.
“Power exercised by the speaker must not be arbitrary,” Vaidyanathan told the court.
The advocate also told the court that in January last year, a three-judge Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices RF Nariman, Aniruddha Bose and V Ramasubramaniam, ruled that speakers of assemblies and Parliament must declare their decisions on disqualification petitions within three months.
The decision to disqualify a member is taken only by the speaker. The Constitution, however, does not specify any time frame for the process that involves inquiry and setting up of a committee.
“I will proceed on the assumption that Mukul Roy has defected from the BJP. A disqualification petition filed in June should not be delayed unnecessarily,” Vaidyanathan told the court.
The matter will be heard again on September 6.
That Mukul Roy could be made the PAC chairman became somehow apparent on June 24 when chief minister Mamata Banerjee stoked speculations.
“Anybody can file nomination papers for inclusion in the PAC. He (Roy) is a BJP member. He has been supported by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. If required, we will support him too. We will win if there is an election. Let people see who is more powerful. The speaker takes these decisions,” Banerjee had said during a press conference. Roy, however, got the post without any election.
According to rules, it is the discretion of the speaker to select the chairpersons of the various committees in the assembly. The Bengal assembly has 41 committees, of which the PAC is considered the most important one.
On June 26, Adhikari submitted a letter to the speaker saying Roy’s nomination should be cancelled because the BJP did not nominate him. Stating that the BJP may seek legal action, the letter said Roy should be disqualified under the anti-defection law.
Adhikari, Mamata Banerjee’s protege-turned-adversary, joined the BJP in December last year and defeated her in the assembly polls. Roy, who joined the BJP in 2017 and became the party’s national vice-president, returned to the TMC along with his son Subhranshu but did not officially resign from the BJP.
