Wednesday 22 January 2020

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE ANTI-DEFECTION LAW? WHAT ARE THE GROUNDS OF DISQUALIFICATION?

            Articles 102 (2) and 191 (2) deals with anti-defection.The intention of the provision is to check the corruption/horse trading in parliament/ to check the popular phenomenon.
            The purpose, as is obvious, is to curb political defection by the legislators. There are two grounds on which a member of a legislature can be disqualified.
·       One, if the member voluntarily gives up the membership of the party, he shall be disqualified. Voluntarily giving up the membership is not the same as resigning from a party. Even without resigning, a legislator can be disqualified if by his conduct the Speaker/Chairman of the concerned House draws a reasonable inference that the member has voluntarily given up the membership of his party.
·       Second, if a legislator votes in the House against the direction of his party and his action is not condoned by his party, he can be disqualified. These are the two grounds on which a legislator can be disqualified from being a member of the House.

            However, there is an exception that was provided in the law to protect the legislators from disqualification.
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             The 10th Schedule says that if there is a merger between two political parties and two-thirds of the members of a legislature party agree to the merger, they will not be disqualified.
            Speaker/ chairman of the house is the authority to decide on defection cases. Speaker sits as a tribunal while deciding on defection cases. All proceedings in relation to any question on disqualification of a member of a House under this Schedule are deemed to be proceedings in Parliament or in the Legislature of a state. No court has any jurisdiction. However, the decision can be brought to court after Kihoto Hollohan case of 1992.

Issue :The Supreme Court on urged Parliament to take a call on setting up an independent tribunal to “swiftly and impartially” decide on the disqualification of lawmakers under the anti-defection law.
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