Kolkata: Speaker of West Bengal Assembly, Biman Bandyopadhyay, on Thursday evening said that he will decide on his future course of action regarding the judgment of the division bench of the Calcutta High Court earlier in the day, striking down the membership of Mukul Roy in the House.
On Thursday, the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi not only cancelled Roy’s House membership but also quashed the order passed by the Speaker earlier refusing to cancel Roy’s membership from the State Assembly.
Giving his reactions to the order, the Speaker said on Thursday evening that he had earlier rejected the BJP’s plea for cancellation of Roy’s membership under the Anti-Defection Law after considering all aspects.
”I will decide on my future action only after studying the Calcutta High Court order in detail,” said the Speaker, who had himself been an advocate by profession. At the same time, he also reminded that in Assembly matters the decision of the Speaker is supreme.
Roy, a former Trinamool Congress 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 of West Bengal.
However, he joined Trinamool Congress just days after the results were declared and Trinamool Congress came to power for the third consecutive term with a massive majority. But he did not resign as a member of the State Assembly and officially continued as a BJP legislator there.
The Assembly Speaker 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.
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, finally on Thursday, Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Basak and Justice Rashidi finally cancelled Roy’s membership from the House.
(IANS)
