Anti-Defection Law

Explanation :

• The anti-defection law is contained in the 10^th Schedule of the Constitution. It was enacted by the Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act, 1985, during the Rajiv Gandhi government. It came into effect on 1^st March 1985.
• Purpose: The purpose is to curb political defection by the legislators.
• The Speaker or the Chairman of the concerned Houses (as applicable) makes decisions on defection matters. If the Chairman or the Speaker defects, the decisions shall be made by a member elected by the House.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.

Ground of Defection

• 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.

Exceptions

The law provides exceptions from being disqualified as a member of legislature on the following grounds:

• When political parties merge with each other entirely.
• When a political party splits into other parties, subject to not less than a third of the members splitting (as per the 93^rd Amendment to the Constitution).
• When two-thirds (or more) of members belonging to a party join another party without both their parties explicitly merging.

Amendment

• The law was amended in 2003 by which the one-third split provision which offered protection to defectors was deleted from the law.