The Supreme Court granted 20 more days to the two rival factions of the All India Trinamool Congress to complete their pleadings before the Election Commission in a dispute pertaining to the party name and the “flowers and grass” election symbol.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana passed the order after taking note of the submissions of senior lawyer and MP Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, and senior advocate K Parmeswar, who represented the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction.
At the outset, Banerjee said that the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction, which was allotted the name Democratic Trinamool Congress, has not filed the requisite pleadings before the Election Commission.
On September 28, the bench had directed the Election Commission to decide within four months the dispute between the two rival factions over the party name and the “flowers and grass” election symbol.
Responding to the submissions, Parmeswar said that due to Dussehra festivities in the state, they could not find non-judicial stamp papers to file certain documents before the poll panel.
He sought some more time for doing the needful.
Finally, the bench granted 10 days’ time to the Democratic Trinamool Congress to file the requisite counter affidavit and other documents before the poll panel. It also granted 10 days’ time to the Mamata faction to file a rejoinder and other relevant documents after the Democratic Trinamool Congress files its response before the Election Commission.
The bench made clear that either party will have the liberty to question the admissibility of documents which would be filed before the poll panel in support of their respective claims.