In a first-of-its-kind order where the membership of an elected representative was judicially disqualified, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday ordered the disqualification of senior Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy from the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Roy, a close aide of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a former railway minister during the UPA regime before he subsequently joined the BJP, had entered the Bengal Assembly on a saffron ticket in the 2021 State elections. He won from the Krishnagar North seat. He was subsequently appointed as Chairman of the PAC in the State Assembly.
However, within a couple of months, he returned to the Trinamool Congress in June 2021, prompting the Opposition BJP to demand his disqualification from the House. Speaker Biman Banjeree, however, refused to oblige, saying he was still a BJP member and had no information that he had left his party.
This led to a petition being filed by Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari in the High Court, which on Thursday passed the order disqualifying Roy, who is presently bedridden on account of some old-age disease at his home. Passing the order, the division bench of Debanshu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi said that the MLA was “declared to have suffered disqualification with effect from June 11, 2021” and his appointment “as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee is set aside.”
The order was passed vide the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India and the Rules of 1986 with effect from June 11, 2021. The Court also set aside the decision of the Speaker, advocate Billwadal Bhattacharya, who appeared for Adhikari, said. The order stands out as the first judicial order disqualifying an elected representative. Earlier Speakers of the House had taken such decisions.
Welcoming the order, Adhikari said that “this is the victory of the Constitution of India and loss of face of a speaker like Biman Banerjee, proving that he is totally ineligible to be a speaker. He is an utterly biased person. The court order has proved it.”
Alleging that in Bengal “the TMC has effected at least 64 such defections at various levels from the BJP, CPI(M) and Congress by showing money or muscle power,” warning “four more such disqualifications would soon come in the future as there are four other MLAs cases against whom are still pending.”
