ANTI DEFECTION LAW:A TOOTHLESS TIGER

"A time has come when parliament should have a rethink on whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to the speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such speakers continues to belong to a particular political party".After what happened in Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh and Manipur.Rajasthan has come to the fore where the rebel MLA'S are on the move.So,what basically is Anti defection law which was enacted by 52 amendment act in the year 1985 by our honorable prime minister Rajeev Gandhi.

The curious case of Gaya Ram (1967),Haryana where he won the election as an independent candidate and within few hours once the result was declared,he joined the congress party,in the evening he joined united front and within 9 hour he joined congress party again.That means he shifted from one party to another 3 times within 9 hours.Then from there the phrase of "Aaya Ram and Gaya RAm"became popular.

But,the problem was it did not ended here ,in 1971 Haryana was in news again Bhajan Lal toppled the state government headed

by Devi Lal and he was in the position to form the government,Bhajan Lal became Chief Minister of Haryana.A year later in 1980,Indira Gandhi stormed back to power at the center and Bhajan Lal along with his 40 Mla joined congress,This had to be curbed.So,by enactment of 10 schedule in 1985,government tried to put hold on this kind of politics.

PROVISIONS

A member of a house belonging to any political party shall be disqualified-

1)if he voluntarily give up his membership.

2)if he votes or abstain from voting in such house contrary to any direction issued by the political party.

But,if the political party condoned the action of the member within the period of 15 days,than the member of house will not be disqualified.

3)An independent member of the house,after the elections if he joins any political party will be disqualified.

4)A  nominated member of the house shall be disqualified for being a member of the house if he joins any political party after the expiry of six months from the date of joining.

EXCEPTIONS

1)In case there is 2/3 merger from a political party to another,will not be disqualified.

2)A person who has been elected to the office of the speaker or deputy speaker or deputy chairman of the council of states,he/she will not be disqualified.

WHO GETS TO DECIDE?

Anti defection law states that the decision should be taken by the speaker of the house.

So,the matter went to supreme court and in landmark judgement a constitutional bench upheld the validity of anti defection law,but reconfirmed the power of judicial review.

WHO CAN COMPLAIN?

Earlier it was legislature who can complain infront of speaker.But,it was year 2013 ,when 4 members of NCP defected to BJD(Naveen Patnaik) and when the president of NCP asked the speaker to disqualify,the speaker take down his request as he was not a legislature.So,the matter went to the supreme court and in the verdict,it cited that-

-Voters(or any person)have 'Locus Standi' to file complaints seeking disqualification of legislature.

ISSUES

-The tenth schedule has no defined procedure with definite time limits for completion of disqualification process of defecting member.

-Judiciary is by and large helpless at pre decisional stage.  

SOLUTIONS

-Define the entire procedure and set definite and reasonable time limit.

-Transfer the disqualification matter from speaker's office to election commission.

-Debarred the legislature for remaining period of time.