Supreme Court seeks Centre’s reply on Kapil Sibal’s plea on interpretation of anti-defection law

NEW DELHI, July 27: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea filed by senior advocate Kapil Sibal seeking reconsideration of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution’s interpretation that allows MLAs and MPs to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law by claiming a merger with another political party.
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, which issued a notice to the Centre, observed that there are several issues involved which are required to be taken by Parliament.
The plea comes against the backdrop of MPs from AAP, Trinamool Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) joining the ruling BJP and other political parties recently by invoking the merger provisions under the Tenth Schedule.
Sibal, an Independent Rajya Sabha MP, said that this issue has “huge repercussions on our polity” as a minority party can become majority while a majority can become a minority due to the provision.
The bench said that the Tenth Schedule, meant for the lawmakers, was passed by Parliament and it is for them to devise a mechanism.
“These are issues typically to be raised on the floor of the House; if not, then before a political party. The Tenth Schedule was intended to regulate a mechanism. We have been seeing it. There are several other issues involved,” Justice Narasimha said.
Sibal alleged that a complete fraud is being played upon.
Justice Narasimha told him, “Who made it? It’s the making of the members of Parliament; it is for the legislators to decide. Anyway, we will issue notice and tag the matter.” Sibal said there is a similar matter related to defection of MLAs from Goa pending before the court.The bench then tagged the plea along with the Goa matter.
Sibal has filed the plea in his personal capacity and sought interpretation of the law.
“This public interest litigation (PIL) is filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, seeking a declaration that Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution does not imply that two-thirds of the legislative party can avoid disqualification by any ‘deemed merger’, when the majority of the political party has not merged or made any attempts to merge with another political party,” his plea said.
It further said that this interpretation allows legislators or groups of legislators to switch from the political party upon whose symbol they have been elected and become members of a different, existing political party without the disqualification that is prescribed for defectors under the Tenth Schedule.
Sibal sought direction to read down Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution to avoid an interpretation that is in serious violation of the basic structure of the Constitution insofar as it has enabled in practice a political culture of encouraging “wholesale defections”, “unprincipled breaking up of political parties” and “horse trading” that leads to overturning the democratic mandate by “illegitimate means”.
Sibal said he seeks judicial protection of the basic structure of the Constitution by the reading down of a provision that permits large-scale defections that seriously impair elections and the integrity of representative party-based democracy.“In the last decade or so alone, there has been a cascade of political defections that have been engineered in legislative assemblies across the country and even in Parliament,” his plea said. (PTI)