Ritabrata Banerjee.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) refused to interfere with the decision of the Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Rathindra Bose, to appoint Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of Opposition (LoP).
A division bench of Justice Shampa Sarkar and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta ruled that the single bench of Justice Krishna Rao will have to dispose of the case within two months.
Earlier, Justice Rao had refused to grant a stay on the Speaker’s order appointing Mr. Ritabrata as the LoP, following which the petitioners approached the division bench.
While the court noted that the best course of action for the Speaker would have been to invite both parties before making the decision, it said that at present no interim relief could be granted to “maintain orderliness of the House”. The court also mentioned that the order of the Speaker was temporary.
A petition challenging Mr. Ritabrata’s appointment was filed by Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay whom Trinamool Congress chairperson and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had nominated as the LoP.
On June 18, Justice Rao refused to grant an interim stay on the petition filed by Mr. Chattopadhyay, saying the court did not find any prima facie case and “balance of convenience and inconvenience in favour of the petitioner for grant of interim order” as prayed.
The Trinamool had won 80 of the 294 seats in the West Bengal Assembly polls. On May 9, its general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, sent a letter to the Speaker nominating Mr. Chattopadhyay as the LoP. Some MLAs, led by Mr. Ritabrata, said that their signatures in the letter were forged. Mr. Ritabrata and Sandipan Saha were expelled from the party after they formally complained, and, on June 3, Mr. Ritabrata was appointed LoP by the Speaker with the support of 58 MLAs. The LoP now claims the support of over 65 out of 80 MLAs.
The appointment of the LoP caused a split in the Trinamool Congress legislature party, with one faction supporting Mr. Ritabrata Banerjee and another backing Mamata Banerjee.
Published – August 18, 2026 10:14 pm IST
