THE 2022 POLITICAL crisis in Maharashtra saw 34 petitions under the anti-defection law filed by members of either faction seeking disqualification of more than 50 MLAs. Rather anticlimactically, no MLA was disqualified by Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who delivered a similar verdict in the NCP split in 2023.
Such occurrences have repeatedly exposed the inability of India’s anti-defection law to curb bulk defections. The law has infamously magnified the problem it was meant to solve, while defecting legislators escape disqualification. How did the law lose the plot so miserably?
The Tenth Schedule is poorly drafted and vulnerable to multiple interpretations. Sample Paragraph 4, which exempts legislators from disqualification if they cross the floor in a group to merge with an existing political party. So, while individual defections get punished, bulk defections can pass muster!
This story is from the October 06, 2024 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the October 06, 2024 edition of THE WEEK India.
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