Building Owner Takes Trinamool Office to Calcutta High Court Seeking Eviction

Rama Devi Goenka, who owns the six‑storey building on Camac Street, stepped into the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, asking a single‑judge bench to give her the go‑ahead to evict the Trinamool Congress office that occupies the seventh and eighth floors. Those two floors are currently the workspace of party general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee.

Goenka says the youth wing of the party – the All India Youth Trinamool Congress – moved in before the landlord handed over a completion certificate, even though the lease signed on 1 March 2020 explicitly required that document before possession could be transferred. In her petition she flags this as the first breach of the agreement.

She adds that a billboard was mounted on the roof without her consent, and that the party’s people have been using parts of the building – the stairwell, the garage and even the rooftop – that were never covered by the lease. In short, she claims the occupants have overstepped the boundaries of the contract on several fronts.

Money, of course, is another sore point. According to Goenka, the Trinamool office has not paid rent for the last five months. The landlord had taken the matter to a lower court earlier, where the judge ordered the status‑quo to be maintained – meaning nobody could be forced out while the case was being sorted.

Unsatisfied with that outcome, Goenka approached Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya of the Calcutta High Court, challenging the lower court’s order and urging the bench to lift the stay so that eviction can proceed.

The dispute is not just a paperwork issue. Last month, Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials, backed by police, tried to remove an “illegal” billboard from the building’s roof. Their attempt sparked a confrontation on 27 August when Trinamool activists, reportedly led by Banerjee, Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien and other senior leaders, clashed with the police.

The fracas led to three FIRs being lodged at Shakespeare Sarani police station, naming Banerjee, O’Brien, Humayun Kabir and Baishwanar Chatterjee among those accused of assaulting police and allegedly attempting to outrage a woman constable’s modesty. So far, 14 people have been arrested, and both Banerjee’s personal aide Sumit Roy and O’Brien have been questioned.

All eyes are now on the High Court. If Justice Bhattacharya grants the eviction permission, the party will have to vacate the premises or face a forced removal – a development that could add another chapter to an already heated political tussle in Kolkata.