The Calcutta High Court has struck down Mukul Roy’s Bengal Assembly membership, ruling his defection from BJP to Trinamool Congress violated the anti-defection law. BJP leaders hailed the verdict as a win for constitutional accountability.
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday cancelled the Assembly membership of Mukul Roy, more than four years after he switched from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The court’s decision came as a major development in the long-pending defection case involving Roy, who had contested and won from the Krishnanagar North seat on a BJP ticket in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court declared that Roy’s membership in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly was invalid. The court also rejected the decision of Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee, who had earlier ruled that Roy was still a BJP MLA.
After winning the election, Mukul Roy, a former railway minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader, had returned to the TMC within a month. Soon after his return, he was appointed as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a post traditionally given to a member from the opposition party.
The BJP continued to challenge this matter both inside the Assembly and in the courts, including the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court. Speaking on the verdict, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said,
“The Speaker’s decision (that Roy was a BJP MLA) taken at the behest of Mamata Banerjee was a challenge to the Constitution. The Congress, CPM, Forward Bloc, RSP and even the Samajwadi Party were all affected by these defections.”
He further added,
“Mukul Roy attended Trinamool meetings, he was seen donning the Trinamool colours, but was still called a BJP MLA. This is unprecedented. The anti-defection law was turned into a joke.”
During his political journey, Mukul Roy had once famously remarked, “What is BJP is Trinamool,” highlighting his shifting allegiance between the two parties.
His case reflected a broader trend in Bengal politics, where several legislators switched parties outside the House but continued to hold their MLA positions officially under their previous party’s banner.
The issue of defection has been a recurring one in West Bengal’s political history. Ever since the Trinamool Congress was formed in 1997, the state has witnessed repeated challenges to the anti-defection law.
The 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution states that any member of a legislative house belonging to a political party will be disqualified if they
“voluntarily give up membership of such a political party” or “vote or abstain from voting contrary to the direction of the political party to which they belong.”
The responsibility of deciding such cases lies with the Speaker, and the Constitution does not fix any time limit for this decision.
After the formation of the Trinamool Congress, around 16 Congress legislators had started working with the TMC while still being recorded as Congress members in Assembly records.
The late Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay was an exception — he resigned from the Assembly before officially joining the Trinamool and later became the first MLA to be elected on a Trinamool ticket.
Seventeen years ago, the late Hashim Abdul Halim, who served as the Speaker of the Bengal Assembly, had disqualified the memberships of Somen Mitra and Sudip Bandyopadhyay. Both had been elected on Congress tickets but later joined the Trinamool.
Subsequently, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Mitra and Bandyopadhyay were elected as Trinamool MPs from Diamond Harbour and Calcutta North, respectively.
The disqualification case against them had been actively pursued by Manas Bhunia, who was then a Congress leader and is currently a minister in the West Bengal government.
Since 2021, after Mukul Roy’s defection, several other legislators have also changed parties but continue to remain MLAs under their original party banners.
For instance, former CPM MLA Dipali Biswas publicly joined the Trinamool by accepting the party flag at the July 21 annual rally. However, she did not appear for any of the 23 hearings held after a complaint was filed in the Speaker’s office regarding her defection.
The Calcutta High Court’s verdict striking down Mukul Roy’s membership is being seen as a significant judgment reinforcing the importance of the anti-defection law.
It sends a strong message against political defections that undermine the democratic process and party-based representation in the legislature.
Read More Reports On Foreign Law Firms
FOLLOW US ON YOUTUBE FOR MORE LEGAL UPDATES
