New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Calcutta High Court’s recent judgment disqualifying senior politician Mukul Roy from the West Bengal Assembly under the anti-defection law.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to the respondents, including West Bengal’s Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and BJP MLA Ambika Roy, on a petition filed by Roy’s son, Subhranshu Roy, challenging the Calcutta High Court verdict, and directed them to file their replies within four weeks.
In the meantime, the apex court directed that the operation of the impugned judgment will remain stayed.
During the hearing, the CJI-led Bench expressed reservations over the Calcutta High Court’s view that strict compliance with Section 65B of the Evidence Act was not required in proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Referring to the electronic evidence against Roy, which showed him attending a Trinamool Congress press conference, the Supreme Court observed that digital material must be duly proved, and added that in the present technological landscape, including the use of Artificial Intelligence, the authenticity of electronic evidence cannot be presumed.
Roy, the former Trinamool General Secretary, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2021 West Bengal elections and also successfully contested as a BJP candidate in Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly constituency in Nadia district. However, he rejoined the Trinamool just days after the results were declared and the party came to power for the third consecutive term with a massive majority. He did not resign as a member of the Assembly and officially continued as a BJP legislator there.
Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay rejected the BJP’s plea for the cancellation of Roy’s membership from the Assembly. The Speaker said that since Roy was officially a BJP candidate, his membership could not be cancelled.
Roy was even made the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House, a post which is traditionally offered to an MLA from the principal Opposition party in the Assembly.
Thereafter, the BJP approached the Calcutta High Court seeking the cancellation of Roy’s membership from the House as a legislator from the Krishnanagar (Uttar) Assembly constituency.
After a prolonged hearing in the matter, the Calcutta High Court, in an order passed on November 13, 2025, cancelled Roy’s membership from the House. A bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md. Shabbar Rashidi also quashed the order passed by the Speaker refusing to cancel the membership of Roy from the Assembly.
(IANS)
