{"id":228482,"date":"2023-02-24T20:38:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T15:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=228482"},"modified":"2023-02-24T20:38:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T15:08:53","slug":"a-case-that-scans-the-working-of-the-anti-defection-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-case-that-scans-the-working-of-the-anti-defection-law\/","title":{"rendered":"A case that scans the working of the anti-defection law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cA case that scans the working of the anti-defection law\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu <\/strong>on 24th February 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Parliament<\/p>\n

Relevance:<\/strong> Issues related to political defections<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>SC of India is presently hearing a set of cases related to political events in Maharashtra last year, when a breakaway faction of Shiv Sena formed government.<\/p>\n

What are some facts related to anti- defection laws?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The anti-defection law was introduced into the Constitution via the Tenth Schedule in 1985<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Its purpose was to check increasingly frequent floor crossing<\/strong>; lured by money, ministerial berths, threats.<\/p>\n

The Tenth Schedule stipulates that if any legislator voted against the party whip, he or she would be disqualified from the house.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While on the one hand this empowered party leadership <\/strong>against the legislative backbench, and weakened the prospect of intra\u00adparty dissent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How has the 10th schedule worked in recent times?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The working of the Tenth Schedule has been patchy. In the last few years, there have been innumerable instances of mid-term toppling of government <\/strong>after a set of the ruling party or coalition\u2019s own members turn against it.<\/p>\n

This is power politics<\/strong> and not the expression of intra\u00adparty dissent.<\/strong> It is evident from the well-documented rise of \u201cresort politics\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, politicians have adopted various strategies<\/strong> to avoid the provisions of anti-defection law.\u00a0 Recent examples involve mass resignations instead of defections to force a fresh election. There have been partisan actions<\/strong> by State Governors with respect to swearing in ceremonies and the timing of floor tests, and equally partisan actions by Speakers in refusing to decide disqualification petitions.<\/p>\n

Why does the role of the Supreme Court become crucial in such cases? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Such cases place the Court in a difficult position.<\/p>\n

The court has to adjudicate the actions of a number of constitutional functionaries:<\/strong> Governors, Speakers, legislative party leaders, elected representatives.<\/p>\n

But the Court does not have the liberty of presuming dishonesty<\/strong>. It must maintain an institutional arm’s length from the political actors, and adjudicate according to legalities.<\/p>\n

Why the role of SC in case of 10th schedule being questioned?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In recent years the Supreme Court has given multiple substantive judgments on anti-defection.<\/strong> But, the toppling of governments remains as frequent as ever.<\/p>\n

Politicians find loopholes in Supreme Court judgments<\/strong> and Tenth Schedule. But, Some of these loopholes were easily foreseeable at the time. They were not addressed by the Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cA case that scans the working of the anti-defection law\u201d published in The Hindu on 24th February 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Parliament Relevance: Issues related to political defections News- SC of India is presently hearing a set of cases related to political events in Maharashtra last year, when… Continue reading A case that scans the working of the anti-defection law<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-228482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":2,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701625842},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228482","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\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}