Supreme Court not to intervene in Mukul Roy’s disqualification issue

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene in a plea by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari against an order of the West Bengal Assembly Speaker dismissing his petition seeking Mukul Roy’s disqualification as an MLA under the anti-defection law. A Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said Mr. Adhikari could very well move the Calcutta High Court. Mr. Roy, a former BJP national vice-president, had returned to the ruling TMC in June last year. Speaker Biman Banerjee had on February 11 rejected Mr. Adhikari’s plea to disqualify him under the Tenth Schedule. The top court also took note of the submission that Mr. Roy’s term as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman was only for a year and asked the High Court to decide the matter within a month.