Supreme Court dismisses Mamata-led TMC faction’s plea to operate four frozen accounts.
The bench asks the Calcutta High Court to expedite the pending hearing.
Entitlement to party funds remains unresolved amid the dispute between rival factions.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) faction’s plea to operate four debit-frozen bank accounts, leaving the matter to the Calcutta High Court and asking it to expedite the hearing.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale declined to interfere with the High Court’s refusal to grant interim relief. It noted that the Election Commission had frozen the party’s symbol and that entitlement to the money remained unresolved.
“We refrain from going into the merits. We are not inclined to exercise our jurisdiction under Article 136. We request the High Court to expedite the hearing,” the bench said.
The petition concerned four accounts with public sector banks whose debit operations had been frozen by the West Bengal Police. The Banerjee-led faction challenged the action, alleging procedural lapses in the FIRs underlying the freeze.
Appearing for the faction, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that restricting access to bank accounts could prevent a political party from carrying out its activities.
“If the police can successfully freeze all the accounts, that is the best way of stopping political activities,” he submitted.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the West Bengal government and police, pointed to the dispute between rival TMC factions. He said the Election Commission was considering which group represented the party, while the bank account case remained before the High Court.
“Now there are two factions of TMC. Now, which is the real TMC? The issue is pending before ECI. But I’m on another aspect. This matter is pending before the Calcutta HC. It’s been now kept for post some vacations. I agree it’s a long date. An order can be passed to advance the hearing,” Mehta told the bench.
The court recorded Singhvi’s submission that earlier judicial orders concerned a different set of accounts. It also noted Mehta’s contention that the present proceedings involved fresh allegations concerning the sale of government land.
Referring to the Election Commission’s September 17, 2026, order freezing the symbol, the bench said the competing claims to the funds could be addressed in the main case.
The High Court had, on August 27, declined to allow the faction to operate the four accounts. It observed that granting interim access would undermine an earlier order permitting the party to meet its day-to-day expenses.
Separately, the Enforcement Directorate has frozen Rs 440 crore in three TMC accounts with HDFC Bank while investigating the alleged laundering of Rs 160 crore in party funds through Kolkata-based Carewell Aviation.
The agency alleges that Rs 112 crore was used to buy an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta helicopter through dubious transactions. Both were subsequently rented to the party, it said.
“The Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were rented to TMC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of the party, and substantial amounts were transferred on the pretext of aircraft usage. The above stated dubious arrangement is under probe to ascertain the actual beneficial purpose of the transactions,” the ED said.
