NEWS  Anti defection law has reduced legislators to being accountable primarily to the party and failed to preserve the stability of governments.

CONTEXT

• The events in Puducherry (resignation by four ruling party MLAs) have again highlighted the absurdity of the anti-defection law.
• Resigning MPs have become the standard operating procedure, lowering the numbers required for a no-confidence motion to succeed. Similar formula was used in other states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

ANTI DEFECTION LAW

• The anti-defection law was included in the Constitution as the Tenth Schedule in 1985 to combat the “evil of political defections”.
• The main purpose was to preserve the stability of governments and insulate them from defections of legislators from the treasury benches.
• The law stated that any Member of Parliament (MP) or that of a State legislature (MLA) would be disqualified from their office if they voted on any motion contrary to the directions issued by their party.

ISSUES

• The provision was not limited to confidence motions or money bills, which are quasi-confidence motions. It applies to all votes in the House, on every Bill and every other issue.
• It even applies to the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils, which have no say in the stability of the government.
• Because an MP (or MLA) has absolutely no freedom to vote their judgement on any issue, they have to blindly follow the direction of the party.
• Thus, these provisions go against the concept of representative democracy. It makes the MP neither a delegate of the constituency nor a national legislator but converts them to be just an agent of the party.

BROKEN CHAIN OF ACCOUNTABILITY

• The legislator is accountable to voters, and the government is accountable to legislators- this is how the chain of accountability works.
• But in India, this chain of accountability has been broken by making legislators accountable primarily to the party. 

IMPACTS

 ERODING LEGISLATURES

• The consequence of the anti-defection law is the hollowing out of our legislatures, as the core role of an MP to examine and decide on policy, Bills and budgets is side-lined. Instead, the MP becomes just another number to be tallied by the party on any vote that it supports or opposes.
• This defeated the purpose of constitution makers, who chose accountability over stability (parliamentary form over presidential form of government).

INDUCING INSTABILITY

• The anti-defection law instead of providing stability has given a loophole to political powers to topple governments. This includes methods like reducing the total membership through resignations.
• The Constitution was amended to ensure that any person disqualified for defecting cannot get a ministerial position unless they are re-elected. But in order to escape the disqualification, sitting MLAs and MPs have started to resign rather than voting against the party.
• In some instances, the Speaker (usually from the ruling party)— has delayed taking a decision on the disqualification. This has led to members who continue to be part of the main Opposition party becoming Ministers (Andhra Pradesh in the term of the last Assembly).

SUPREME COURT’S STANCE   The Supreme Court has tried to plug this loophole by ruling that the Speaker has to take the decision in three months, but it is not clear what would happen if a Speaker does not do so.

RIGHT SOLUTION

• The problem arises from the attempt to find a legal solution to what is essentially a political problem i.e. political parties need to strengthen their internal systems.
• If they attract members on the basis of ideology, and they have systems for people to rise within the party hierarchy on their capabilities (rather than inheritance), there would be a greater exit barrier.
• These characteristics seem absent in many of the political parties, and we have seen a large number of defections despite the anti defection law.

The anti defection law has been detrimental to the functioning of our legislatures as deliberative bodies which hold the executive to account on behalf of citizens. It has turned them into fora to endorse the decision of the government on Bills and budgets. And it has not even done the job of preserving the stability of governments. Hence there is an urgent need to relook at the provisions of Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-absurdity-of-the-anti-defection-law/article33935666.ece