HC adjourns plea against PAC chairman appointment

kolkata: The Calcutta High Court (HC) on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of the plea moved by BJP MLA Ambika Roy challenging appointment of Trinamool Congress MLA Mukul Roy as chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to September 10.

In August, the Calcutta High Court sought the state government's response in connection with the plea challenging the appointment of Roy as PAC chairman. A Division Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, heard the public interest litigation filed by Kalyani's BJP MLA Ambika Roy challenging the decision of the Speaker Biman Banerjee to appoint Mukul Roy as PAC chairman.

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 chairman. The reason being an Opposition MLA usually gets appointed in the post and Roy recently joined TMC. Roy, who was BJP MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, had joined TMC in June.