{"id":13119,"date":"2017-12-08T17:20:23","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T11:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=13119"},"modified":"2017-12-08T17:20:23","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T11:50:23","slug":"anti-defection-law-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/anti-defection-law-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Defection Law in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u>Context:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, Janata Dal United leader Sharad Yadav, was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha\u00a0 along with party colleague Ali Anwar.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Introduction:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Terming his disqualification from Rajya Sabha as unfair and a conspiracy hatched by Nitish Kumar and the BJP, Sharad Yadav on Thursday said he would challenge it in the court.<\/li>\n<li>The grounds for disqualification of the member of the Parliament are mentioned in Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Tenth Schedule of the Constitution:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The 10th Schedule to the Indian Constitution, popularly referred to as the \u2018<strong><u>Anti-Defection Law\u2019<\/u><\/strong> was inserted by the 1985 Amendment (52nd) to the Constitution.<\/li>\n<li>It defines defection and disqualification in order to get rid of evil of political defection in lure of political advantage and lure of office, which certainly pose a threat on the essence of parliamentary system that is stability.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u2018Defection\u2019<\/strong> has been defined as, <strong><u>\u201cTo abandon a position or association, often to join an opposing group\u201d.<\/u><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Purpose of introducing tenth schedule:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The anti defection law was enacted to ensure that a party member do not violate the mandate of the party and in case he do so he will be disqualified from participating in the election.<\/li>\n<li>The Anti-Defection Law allows Parliament to announce those members defected who oppose or do not vote in line with party&#8217;s decision.<\/li>\n<li>The aim of Anti-Defection Law is to prevent members of Parliament to change parties for any personal motive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Positives of the 10<sup>th<\/sup> Schedule:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Help in reducing corruption of the floor of the house to some extent, by restricting inter party movement of MPs<\/li>\n<li>Helps in maintain consensus among MPs of a single party on the floor of the house.<\/li>\n<li>Help in ensuring stability of the democracy, and preventing disruption of govt on account of individual monetary greed.<\/li>\n<li>Provides stability to the governments by banning defections.<\/li>\n<li>Lessen the burden of unnecessary election.<\/li>\n<li>Hailed as one of the most important step towards strengthening our democratic set up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Negatives:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prevents individual defections and sanctions mass defection, in the name of mergers.<\/li>\n<li>Does not regulate the activities of MPs outside the House.<\/li>\n<li>Unnecessary and unexplained difference between independent and nominated members in event of joining a political party.<\/li>\n<li>Doesn\u2019t differentiate between dissent and defection. It curbs legislature\u2019s right to dissent.<\/li>\n<li>Often regarded as the reason behind falling standard of debates inside the House as members keep themselves away from expressing their independent view on government\u2019s policies.<\/li>\n<li>Law discriminates between an independent member and nominated members are allowed for the same.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Grounds for disqualification:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If an elected member voluntarily gives up his membership of a political party.<\/li>\n<li>It he votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by his political party.<\/li>\n<li>If any independently elected member joins any political party.<\/li>\n<li>If any nominated member joins any political party after the expiry of six months.<\/li>\n<li>The decision on questions are to disqualification on ground of defection is referred to the chairman or the Speaker of such House, and his decision is final.<\/li>\n<li>All proceedings in relation to disqualification under this Schedule are deemed to be proceedings in Parliament or in the Legislature of a state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Arguments in favour of Anti-Defection:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provides stability to the government by preventing shifts of party allegiance.<\/li>\n<li>Ensures that candidates elected with party support and on the basis of party manifestoes remain loyal to the party policies.<\/li>\n<li>Promotes party discipline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Arguments against Anti-Defection:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Legislators often argue that defection is a matter of choice and as individuals they have a right to decide who to support.<\/li>\n<li>Several democracies have not adopted an anti-defection law, even though legislators often switch to the other side.<\/li>\n<li>In the U.K., Australia and the U.S., parliamentarians and senators often take positions contrary to their parties or vote against the party\u2019s view, yet continue within the same party.<\/li>\n<li>Legislators should be allowed to express their own views and a defection law amounts to curtailment of the delegate\u2019s freedom of choice.<\/li>\n<li>Anti-Defection goes against the basis of a representative democracy in which the elected representative is expected to act in public interest<\/li>\n<li>The anti-defection law breaks the link between the elected representative and his electors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Views of some Committees:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dinesh Goswami Committee:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>The issue of disqualification should be decided by the President\/ Governor on the advice of the Election Commission.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Law Commission (170th Report, 1999)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>a) Pre-poll electoral fronts should be treated as political parties under anti-defection law.<\/li>\n<li>b) Political parties should limit issuance of whips to instances only when the government is in danger.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Election Commission<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Decisions under the Tenth Schedule should be made by the President\/ Governor on the binding advice of the Election Commission.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>What reforms are needed in Anti-defection law?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Following are the key reforms needed in anti-defection law.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decision making power of speaker \/ chairman needs review<\/li>\n<li>The phrase \u201cvoluntarily giving up membership\u201d is too vague and needs comprehensive revision.<\/li>\n<li>Political parties should limit issuance of whips to instances only when the government is in danger<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Election Commission had recommended that the decisions under the Tenth Schedule should be made by the President\/ Governor on the binding advice of the Election Commission. \u00a0A constitutional amendment vesting the power to decide matters relating to disqualification on the ground of defection with the President\/Governor acting on the advice of the Election Commission would actually help in preserving the integrity of the Speaker\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Way ahead:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The decision to disqualify a legislator is contingent on the institution of the speaker.<\/li>\n<li>The partisan role of the Speaker in many States has ensured the continuation of turncoat legislators as legitimate members of the House.<\/li>\n<li>This is a good time to heed the advice of eminent constitutional experts to amend the antidefection law and rest the authority to disqualify turncoats in the hands of an autonomous body<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Recently, Janata Dal United leader Sharad Yadav, was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha\u00a0 along with party colleague Ali Anwar. Introduction: Terming his disqualification from Rajya Sabha as unfair and a conspiracy hatched by Nitish Kumar and the BJP, Sharad Yadav on Thursday said he would challenge it in the court. The grounds for disqualification&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/anti-defection-law-in-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Anti-Defection Law in India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":4046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-editorials","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/law.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":128,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}