The anti-defection law — political facts, legal fiction
- Crisis in Maharashtra and earlier instances are reminders of what the Tenth Schedule can and cannot do.
Anti-defection law
Tenth Schedule
- Added by 52nd Amendment Act, 1985.
- Commonly known as ‘anti-defection law’.
- Aimed to refrain legislators from changing political affiliations during their term in office.
Law on defections - ‘mergers’
- Paragraph 4: Exception for mergers between political parties by
- Original political party: A political party to which a member belongs (this can refer to the party generally, outside of the House).
- Legislature party: A group of all elected members of a House for the time being belonging to one political party
- Deemed merger: When the original party merges with another political party and at least two-thirds members of party should agree.
- Impact: individual Members remain vulnerable to disqualification while group defections remain exempted.
- Need:
- To protect principle merger of political groups from disqualification
- To strike a compromise b/w right of dissent and party discipline
Way forward
- Abide by the recommendations of the Law Commission, 1999 and NCRWC, 2002 to delete Paragraph 4.
- Academic revisiting of Tenth Schedule by SC to guide future use of the anti-defection law.