Mukul Roy gets interim relief as SC stays disqualification
The Supreme Court has stayed the Calcutta High Court order disqualifying veteran leader Mukul Roy as a West Bengal MLA for defection. The top court granted interim relief while hearing a petition challenging the high court verdict
New Delhi: In a major reprieve to veteran politician Mukul Roy, the Supreme Court stayed the Calcutta High Court verdict disqualifying him as an MLA of the West Bengal Assembly after he defected from the BJP to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The high court, on November 13, 2025, had disqualified Roy under the anti-defection law for switching over to the ruling TMC after having been elected on a BJP ticket in the 2021 elections.
On Friday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the interim order while issuing notice on a petition filed by Roy’s son Subhranshu Roy, challenging the high court’s decision.
The bench directed that the operation of the high court’s judgment shall remain in abeyance.
Lawyer Preetika Dwivedi, who represented Subhranshu Roy, said the veteran leader was ailing and claimed that the high court exceeded its jurisdiction by ordering the disqualification of a legislator while exercising its limited judicial review powers.
She said the Assembly Speaker had rejected the disqualification petitions on the ground that the social media posts submitted to show the alleged defection of Mukul Roy were not authenticated as required under Section 65B of the Evidence Act.
The high court reversed the Speaker’s decision, observing that strict adherence to Section 65B was not necessary in proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, appearing for BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Ambika Roy, said Roy had contested on a BJP ticket and later openly joined the opposite party, which amounted to defection. He also raised the issue of locus and objected to the filing of the petition by Roy’s son.
“If he is in a critical situation, why cannot a family member file the petition? He is also added as a respondent,” the bench said. The Chief Justice said that electronic evidence needs to be proved as authentic, pointing to the presence of AI-generated videos.
Agarwal opposed the stay of the judgment, saying he could prima facie show that there was defection.
Referring to the fact that the tenure of the Assembly is ending in a few months, the bench ordered a stay of the judgment.
“If he contests the election again for MLA, then you move an application, we will see what is to be done,” the bench said.
Taking recourse to the anti-defection law, the high court, for the first time, exercised its constitutional authority to disqualify an elected lawmaker.
Roy was elected to the House on a BJP ticket from the Krishnanagar Uttar seat in May 2021, but joined the ruling Trinamool Congress in June that year in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, while retaining his MLA status.
The high court had also set aside Roy’s nomination as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), saying his membership of the House stood disqualified with effect from June 11, 2021.
The high court said it had no hesitation in setting aside Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee’s order of June 8, 2022, by which he had rejected a petition filed by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari seeking Roy’s disqualification.
The high court had also allowed another plea by BJP MLA Ambika Roy, which was heard along with Adhikari’s petition before the Speaker following an order of the Supreme Court, seeking disqualification of Mukul Roy.
“Mukul Roy is declared to have become disqualified in terms of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and the Rules of 1986 with effect from June 11, 2021,” the high court said.
The court observed that given the range of evidence placed before the Speaker by Ambika Roy during the adjudication proceedings, the only plausible conclusion was that the Speaker’s decision on Roy’s disqualification was perverse.
“No reasonable person could have arrived at the conclusion returned by the respondent No 1 (Speaker Biman Banerjee) on the basis of the materials placed before him.
“Perversity vitiating the impugned decision is accentuated by the respondent No 1 deploying a wrong yardstick in evaluating the rival contentions,” the high court said.
The bench said BJP MLA Ambika Roy had been able to establish that Mukul Roy defected from the BJP to the Trinamool Congress on June 11, 2021.
“Such action of Mukul Roy has incurred the disqualification contemplated under the Tenth Schedule,” it observed.
The disqualification petition was filed before the Speaker on June 17, 2021, alleging defection by Mukul Roy on June 11, 2021.
The Speaker took a decision on February 11, 2022, dismissing the disqualification petition.
Another division bench of the high court, by an order dated April 11, 2022, set aside the Speaker’s decision and directed a fresh adjudication.
The high court said the Speaker had misapplied the law and misappreciated the factual position while deciding the disqualification petition and again erred in his June 8, 2022 order holding that Roy was a BJP MLA.
Roy’s joining of the TMC was also broadcast on the official X handle of the ruling party.