SC agrees to urgent listing of Mamata Banerjee's plea challenging EC action on TMC name, symbol
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to urgently list a plea filed by former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the Election Commission's decision to freeze the Trinamool Congress' name and party symbol amid a dispute between two rival factions of the party.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, seeking an urgent hearing.
"They issue a notification and in the middle of notification, they freeze the symbol. What is going on? We want urgent listing," Sibal submitted.
The Election Commission on Friday allotted separate names and symbols to the two rival factions after deciding a day earlier to bar both groups from using the "All India Trinamool Congress" name and reserved symbol pending a substantive determination of the dispute.
In its interim order issued on Thursday night, the poll panel said the dispute required substantive determination by the Election Commission under the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
The order followed a hearing of leaders of the two factions led by Banerjee and Arup Roy.
