HC asks Speaker to decide on PIL against Mukul Roy as chairman of PAC by Oct 7

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the Speaker of the Bengal Legislative Assembly to take a decision on the petition seeking disqualification of Mukul Roy as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and submit a record of the order passed by October 7, which is the next date of hearing in the matter.

Earlier, BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had moved a disqualification petition against Roy before the Speaker on June 17. Kalyani BJP MLA Ambika Roy had filed a petition in July challenging Roy's election as chairman of the PAC and prayed for nomination of an Opposition member to the post as per tradition.

"Before we proceed further in the matter let the respondent No. 1 (the Speaker) place before us the Order passed in the petition filed for disqualification of respondent No. 2 (Mukul Roy) as Member of the Legislative Assembly," the bench said in its order. A division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, observed on Tuesday that its earlier judgments had held that a period of three months from the date on which the petition is filed is the outer limit within which disqualification filed before the Speaker must be decided.

It was noted that the three months period to decide on the disqualification petition by the Speaker had already expired on September 16. On July 9, Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay appointed Roy as the chairman of the PAC stating that "he has vast experience in Parliamentary Affairs and he belongs to the legislative party of BJP in Opposition. He is the competent person to head the present committee of public accounts of this House". BJP, however, walked out of the House soon after the Speaker announced Roy's name as the chairman of PAC claiming that the rule had been misused to appoint him as the committee's chairman.