Following the footsteps of Raja Sahab, will the Pilot also take off from the runway? After Jyotiraditya Scindia, is it now Sachin Pilot’s turn to move on by breaking his long succouring loyalty towards the 1885 formed Indian National Congress (INC) party popularly known as Congress. Rewinding our memories, we see that this is not the first time that things have gotten messy in politics. The trailer launch of this movie started 3 months back with the resignation of Jyotiraditya Scindia from Congress. Let’s take an overview of India’s Anti Defection Law.
After serving 18 years as one of the most promising politicians of Indian National Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia handed over his resignation to the Party President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi on 9th March, 2020, the day well remembered as Late Shri Madhavrao Scindia’s birth anniversary and joined Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) with more than 20 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) abandoning the party alongside Scindia. These exits resulted in the collapse of Kamal Nath led Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh with BJP getting back in action leading to re-appointment of Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the Chief Minister of the State for the fourth time, setting his mark as the longest-serving CM of Madhya Pradesh.
The Pilot dispute is thus the repercussion of sidelining Congress’ Youth icon many times in the past though the incident that caught public attention lately was sacking him off from the position of Deputy CM of Rajasthan as well as State Congress Chief along with 2 other MLAs, namely – Ramesh Meena and Vishwendra Singh from the Cabinet. As an aftermath of the same, 59 office bearers of Congress Tonk Unit have handed over their resignation in support of Pilot. In furtherance to this dissension, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker, CP Joshi, on receiving complaints by the ruling party in the state, has issued disqualification notices to Sachin Pilot in addition to 18 other Members of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly to prove their disqualification immaterial under the Tenth Schedule of our Indian Constitution i.e. Anti – Defection Law and put a full stop to the party contention.
ANTI – DEFECTION LAW
In the year 1969, a committee was formed under the Chairmanship of YB Chavan to examine the requirement of Anti – Defection law. The committee pointed out personal benefits, greed for luxury and lure for executive offices as some of the reasons of encouraging defection and recommended not only debarring such defectors from office but also restraining them from contesting elections for a specified period of time. Thereinafter, the Provisions as to disqualification on grounds of defection popularly known as Anti – defection law was inserted in the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution by the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985.
The law was much needed to regularize the conduct of consistent incoming and outgoing of the legislators from the “House” interpreted as either House of Parliament or House of State Legislature, by disqualifying them as members of the House on 2 grounds, namely,
- If a member voluntarily gives up his membership of such political party from which he contested elections and became a Member of Legislative Assembly or Member of Parliament;
- If a member goes against the instructions issued by the political party to which he/she belongs and votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to the party direction.
Other grounds to preclude members under the provisions of the present schedule includes removal of an independent candidate who joins a party after election and disentitling a nominated member from joining any political party after 6 months of such member becoming a legislator. The Anti – Defection law can be said to work as a vaccine towards removal/disqualification of existing party pandemics.
Para 4 of the said schedule acknowledges exemptions provided to members of the House from disqualification on the grounds of defection. The exemptions mentioned are as under –
- When the original political party, meaning, political party from which a member-facing disqualification is elected, merges with another political party and the members claim themselves to be a part of such political party or political party newly formed out of the merger;
- In such other circumstances when the members do not accept the merger and decide to work as a separate group.
Para 4 comes into play only when more than 2/3rds of the party members have assented to the merger of parties. To keep in mind, notwithstanding anything contained in the abovementioned schedule applies to the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly, Chairman or Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Council. As per the Tenth Schedule of our Constitution, the decision as to barring of any member from the House stands in the hands of the Speaker or the Chairman of the House, as the case may be.
GLOBAL ASPECT
Looking at this concept globally, one comes across the figure of 40 countries out of 195 exercising Anti – Defection laws worldwide. It is surprising to not find the UK and USA in the list of these 40 countries. These countries do not exercise Anti – Defection Laws but takes strict disciplinary action against the defected members. In India, even after 35 years, the schedule remains intact in our Indian Constitution securing political parties from defectors
