{"id":350008,"date":"2025-11-15T14:49:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=350008"},"modified":"2025-11-15T14:49:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:19:01","slug":"anti-defection-law-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/anti-defection-law-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Defection Law\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>News: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Calcutta High Court disqualified senior political leader from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Anti-Defection Law\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>It was introduced through the 52nd Constitutional Amendment (1985)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by adding the <\/span><b>Tenth Schedule<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Purpose:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> To curb political defections motivated by the lure of office, money, or other similar incentives\u2014popularly highlighted by the \u201c<\/span><b>Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d episode of 1967.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Scope:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Applies to <\/span><b>Parliament<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and all <\/span><b>state legislative assemblies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Grounds for Disqualification:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A legislator <\/span><b>voluntarily gives up membership<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of their political party (which can be inferred from conduct, not only formal resignation).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A legislator <\/span><b>violates the party whip<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by abstaining from voting or voting against party directions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Judicial Interpretation:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><b>Voluntarily giving up membership<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d has a <\/span><b>broad meaning<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, covering conduct such as public criticism of the party or participation in opposition rallies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Courts insist on <\/span><b>no intervention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> until the Presiding Officer gives a decision but allow review after.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Independent and nominated members:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Independent legislators<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are disqualified if they join a political party after being elected.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Nominated members<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may join a party within <\/span><b>six months<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of being nominated; after that period, joining a party leads to disqualification.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Authority to Decide Disqualification:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Presiding Officer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Speaker\/Chairman) decides on defection petitions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their decision is <\/span><b>subject to judicial review<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the High Courts and the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>No Specified Time Limit: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law does not fix a timeline for the Presiding Officer to decide cases, resulting in delays that have been criticised by courts and committees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Exceptions (No Disqualification):<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Party merger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If <\/span><b>two-thirds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of a party\u2019s legislators agree to merge with another party.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Members who stay with the original party or merge with the new one are both protected.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Recently, the Calcutta High Court disqualified senior political leader from the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. About Anti-Defection Law\u00a0 It was introduced through the 52nd Constitutional Amendment (1985) by adding the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. Purpose: To curb political defections motivated by the lure of office, money, or other similar incentives\u2014popularly highlighted by the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/anti-defection-law-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Anti-Defection Law\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1731,1760,12039],"tags":[11872,12085],"class_list":["post-350008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-bill-and-acts","category-polity-and-nation","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-news-on-air","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350008","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\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}