Anti – Defection law | 10th Schedule | UPSC – IAS and PCS
You may have heard about the anti-defection law. Most of the members of the legislatures are elected on the ticket of some political party. What would happen if they decide to leave the party after getting elected? For many years after independence, this issue was unresolved.
Finally, there was an agreement among the parties that a legislator who is elected on one party’s ticket must be restricted from ‘defecting’ to another party. An amendment to the Constitution was made (52nd amendment act) in 1985. This is known as anti-defection amendment. It has also been subsequently modified by the 91st amendment. The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
What is defection? | UPSC – IAS
If a member remains absent in the House when asked by the party leadership to remain present or votes against the instructions of the party or voluntarily leaves the membership of the party, it is deemed as defection. “A legislator is deemed to have defected if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote.”
Why was the anti-defection law enacted ?
The anti-defection law in India was enacted to address the perceived problem of instability caused by democratically elected legislators in India’s federal system of government shifting allegiance from the parties they supported at the time of election, or disobeying their parties’ decisions at critical times such as during voting on an important resolution. Primary intentions of the law were:-
To strengthen democracy by bringing stability politics, ensuring legislative programmes of the Government are not jeopardised by a defecting parliamentarian
To curb political corruption, which was seen as a necessary first step to addressing other forms of corruption in the country.
Such shifting of allegiance was considered to be a symptom of endemic political corruption, which in turn provided some legitimation for corruption prevalent in other aspects of life in the country.
They often brought about political instability. This caused serious concerns to the right-thinking political leaders of the country and at last, the anti – defection law was enacted.
To make members of parliaments more responsible and loyal to the parties with whom they were aligned at the time of their election
An example – Occurred in 1967 when the legislator Gaya Lal changed his allegiance three times in a single day, giving rise to the popular expression Aaya Ram Gaya Ram (“Ram has come, Ram has gone”). The anti-defection law sought to prevent such political defections which may be due to reward of office or other similar considerations.
Are there any flaws in anti defection law ? | UPSC – IAS
The law does not specify a time-period for the Presiding Officer to decide on a disqualification plea. Given that courts can intervene only after the Presiding Officer has decided on the matter, the petitioner seeking disqualification has no option but to wait for this decision to be made.
There have been several cases where the Courts have expressed concern about the unnecessary delay in deciding such petitions. In some cases this delay in decision making has resulted in members, who have defected from their parties, continuing to be members of the House.
There have also been instances where opposition members have been appointed ministers in the government while still retaining the membership of their original parties in the legislature.
In recent years, opposition MLAs in some states, such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, have broken away in small groups gradually to join the ruling party. In some of these cases, more than 2/3rd of the opposition has defected to the ruling party.
How far has the law succeeded in achieving its goal ? | UPSC – IAS
Anti-Defection Law has proven to be woefully ineffective in achieving its key objective. Experience of the past twenty – five years shows that the anti-defection amendment has not been able to curb defections, but it has given additional powers to the party leadership and the presiding officers of the legislatures over the members.
But, law has been able to curb the evil of defection to a great extent. lately, an alarming trend of legislators defecting in groups to another party in search of greener pastures is visible.
This only shows that the law needs a relook in order to plug the loopholes.
Political instability caused by a frequent and unholy change of allegiance by the legislators of our country has been contained to a very great extent.
Does the anti-defection law affect the ability of legislators to make decisions ? | UPSC – IAS
The anti-defection law seeks to provide a stable government by ensuring the legislators do not switch sides. However, this law also restricts a legislator from voting in line with his
Conscience,
Judgement and
Interests of his electorate.
Such a situation impedes the oversight function of the legislature over the government, by ensuring that members vote based on the decisions taken by the party leadership, and not what their constituents would like them to vote for.
