Everything today in the world has been submerged by the plethora of COVID-19 news etc, as media is continues to focus all attention on the virus. One that had escaped focus was the order of the division bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Rohinton Nariman who on March 18, restrained Manipur minister and political turncoat Shyamkumar from entering the assembly and had also stripped him from remaining a minister. This stunning development practically reduced the former Congress member-turned BJP minister into a political nobody. The order came after the assembly Speaker Singh failed to decide on the disqualification petition on grounds of defection pending against Shyamkumar within the four-week period stipulated by the Supreme Court. The order left the turncoat with no option but to resign as legislator after eight days on March 26. Shyamkumar, who won as a Congress candidate from Andro in the 2017 assembly election, immediately switched sides to join Manipur’s first Bharatiya Janata Party-led government headed by N Biren Singh. Incidentally, Shyamkumar’s resignation came two days prior to the verdict on his disqualification case pending before the Manipur assembly Speaker’s tribunal. This game of entertaining political turncoats and rewarding them with ministerial berth is not unknown and popular with the BJP in its determination to grab power by depriving its sworn foe, the Congress. It may be recalled, that in the 2017 Manipur assembly election, the sitting Congress won 28 of the 60 assembly seats to become the single-largest party in the state, followed by the BJP , which won 21 seats. By the evening of March 12, 2017- after results were declared- the day after the election results were announced—the BJP managed to woo the NPP and NPF which won four seats each including support from the LJP, Trinamool and an independent having one seat each. The next day, the state governor Najma Heptullah, asked the Congress’s Okram Ibobi Singh, the incumbent chief minister, to submit his resignation and then invited the BJP-led coalition to form the government and prove their majority on the floor of the house “as soon as possible.” That “soon as possible” came two days later but before which, Biren Singh was sworn-in as chief minister and the Congress defector made a minister. The Congress had filed an application of disqualification against Shyamkumar but Speaker Khemchand did not take any action, after which a writ petition was filed. Singh was also suspended from the party for six years. There are growing instances where opposition members have been appointed ministers in the government while still retaining the membership of their original parties in the legislature. The Anti Defection Law is in need of further amendment to ensure that anti-party activities include hiding in resorts or being corralled in hide outs to destabilise a government. A vote against a party government should not result in disqualification provided the rebel has not joined another party. Also, the anti-defection law does not specify a timeframe for Speakers to decide on defection proceedings. When the politics demanded, Speakers were either quick to pass judgment on defection proceedings or delayed acting on them for years on end. The game of arithmetical calculation of suspending some so as to disqualify others,should also be done away with. Unless the law is further reviewed and amended the scoundrels will always find a loophole.