The Goa State Legislative Assembly Speaker on Friday reportedly dismissed the disqualification petition filed by former state president of the Congress party against Congress MLAs who had joined the BJP two years ago thus approving the ‘merger’ of these MLAs into the party. This was probably on expected lines. The Speaker ruled that “upon the merger of the original political party of the elected members with another party, the elected members will not face disqualification whether he /she chooses to go with the merger or disagrees with the same.
Obviously disqualification on ground of defection does not apply under the 10th schedule of the Constitution in case of merger. The decision from the Speaker has come two years after the disqualification petition was filed. Be that as it may, the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution is designed to prevent political defections prompted by the lure of office or material benefits or other like considerations. The Anti-defection law was passed by Parliament in 1985 and reinforced in 2002. The 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution popularly referred to as the ‘Anti-Defection Law’ was inserted by the 52nd Amendment to the Constitution.
The anti-defection law was enacted to ensure that a party member does not violate the mandate of the party and in case he/she does so, the membership of the House will be lost. The law applies to both Parliament and State Assemblies. However, in the situation where two-thirds of the legislators of a political party decide to merge into another party, neither the members who decide to join nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification. The question that arises is that if the twin requirement of merger of political party and legislature party is not necessary will it actually stop defection for which the law was enacted?
