The Supreme Court of India on Friday, January 16, 2026, put an interim stay on the Calcutta High Court's judgment that had disqualified Mukul Roy as a Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. Roy, who had won the Krishnanagar Uttar seat on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket in the 2021 Assembly elections, had subsequently joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in June 2021. This defection led to disqualification petitions being filed by BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition, and MLA Ambika Roy. Initially, the West Bengal Assembly Speaker had refused to disqualify Mukul Roy. However, the Calcutta High Court, in a landmark ruling on November 13, 2025, reversed the Speaker's decision and disqualified Roy under the anti-defection law (Tenth Schedule of the Constitution). The High Court had deemed the Speaker's earlier refusal as "perverse" and found that Roy had indeed defected. The Supreme Court's interim order came while hearing a petition filed by Subhranshu Roy, Mukul Roy's son, who stated that his father was unwell. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to Suvendu Adhikari and Ambika Roy, directing them to file their counter-affidavits within four weeks. A significant aspect of the Supreme Court's deliberation was the Chief Justice's skepticism regarding the sole reliance on electronic evidence, such as video recordings, in defection proceedings, citing concerns about the authenticity of such material in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The bench questioned the High Court's stance that strict adherence to Section 65B of the Evidence Act was not necessary in anti-defection cases.