 I have received several requests from the viewers in the past few days to explain the anti-defection law in simple terms. So let us understand the provisions and effect of the anti-defection law in India. Let me remind all the viewers that in this video lecture, I shall be talking only about the anti-defection law in India as primarily contained in the 10th schedule of the Indian Constitution. I will not be touching upon the constitutional provisions which deal with the disqualification of a member of a parliament or that of a legislative assembly or the legislative council of a state on any other grounds, grounds other than the anti-defection law because there are several other grounds other than anti-defection law on which a member can be disqualified. I will be dealing only with the anti-defection law related disqualification. The 10th schedule was inserted in the constitution in 1985 by the 52nd Amendment Act to address the apparent problem of instability caused by democratically elected members in India's parliamentary system of government. Shifting allegiance or loyalty from the parties they supported and contested from originally at the time of election or disobeying the party's decision at critical times such as during voting on important issues and matters. Such shifting of allegiance or loyalty was considered to be an indicator or symptom of rampant political corruption which in turn provided soft legitimization for corruption prevalent in other facets of administration. Such defections were also branded as betrayal of the people's mandate. The anti-defection law as contained in the 10th schedule of the constitution of India contains eight paragraphs. Let us go through each one of them one by one and understand what they provide for. House 1 gives some key definitions defining House as either House of Parliament or the legislative assembly or as the case may be either House of the Legislature of a state like Vidhan Sabha, Vidhan Parishad and Houses of Parliament means Lok Sabha or Rajasabha. Then it defines Legislature party as the group consisting of all members of the House for the time being belonging to that political party. Then it goes on to define an original political party as the political party to which a concerned member of a House belongs. These are the main three definitions in paragraph 1. Paragraph 2 is a substantive para and it lays down the parameters of disqualification or parameters for disqualification on grounds of defection. It says that a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House, a if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party or b if he votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs or by any person or authority authorized by it in this behalf meaning authorized by political party if he disobeys that directive without obtaining in either case the prior permission of such political party, person or authority and such voting or abstention has not been condoned by such political party, person or authority within 15 days from the date of such voting or abstention. So there are these are the two conditions where it could be condoned which have been mentioned further any member after being elected as a representative of a certain political party shall be disqualified if he or she joins any political party after the election. This includes even an independent candidate joining a political party after the election as such. So A, B, C have covered three parameters fourth D if a nominated member joins any political party after the expiry of six months of his becoming a member of the legislature he shall also stand disqualified. Now please remember that voluntarily giving up his membership does not tend to amount to resignation from the party you know this act of giving up your membership or a member you know one's membership could be expressed or implied. The burden of proving that there was no intention to give up membership is on the member against whom you know disqualification proceedings have been initiated which I will be explaining you know down the line. Now paragraph three stands omitted by the 91st amendment act in 2003 it was omitted. So let us move to paragraph four which again is a substantive provision as it deals with the exceptions to the disqualification. Paragraph four states that disqualification on ground of defection shall not apply shall not apply in case of a merger in case of a merger. So what constitutes a merger? Well that paragraph says a member of a house shall not be disqualified where his original political party merges with another political party and he claims that he and any other members of his original you know political party have become you know members of such other political party you know that they have joined some other political party or as the case may be of a new political party formed by such merger. So they may the two parties may join together to become a new party or they may become a new party altogether without joining any other political party or be you know they have not accepted the merger and opted to function as a separate group and from the time of such merger such other political party or new political party or group as the case may be shall be deemed to be the political party to which he belongs for the purposes of the tenth schedule. So they can they have the choice of forming a separate group as well where they choose not to merge with any other party and this new transformation you know as the case may be shall be considered to be his original political party for the purposes of tenth schedule. So now the new setup will be considered as the original party. So again this anti-direction will come into play if he has to move from that new transformation in future. This still does not define merger you know so subsequent part of para 4 you know clarifies it more what is a merger. It says that the merger of the original political party of a member of a house shall be deemed to have taken place if and only if this is important if and only if not less than two thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such merger. So the two thirds member have to consent to the merger. We can now skip you know para 5 as it deals with exemptions from disqualifications for you know those members who are holding the position of speaker chairman and deputy chairman of various legislative houses that may not be relevant basically they are exempted the presiding officers are exempted from the disqualification proceedings. Sub 6 deals with decisions on questions as to disqualification on ground of defection. This provision mandates that the chairman or the speaker of the respective legislative house shall be the ultimate decision making authority in cases of disqualification proceedings issues that arise you know from disqualification. The law you know initially stated that the presiding officer shall not be subjected to any judicial review his decisions shall be final and binding in all respect and which is still there in theory but not in practice this condition was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1992 thereby allowing appeals against the presiding officer's decision in the High Court and you know Supreme Court. However it held that there may not be any judicial intervention it is important they held that there may not be any judicial intervention until the presiding order gives his order and the burden of proving that there was no intention to give up membership is on the member against whom disqualification proceedings have been initiated. So while these proceedings of disqualification are going on judicial review is barred it comes only when the final order is pronounced by the presiding officer further in a recent judgment the Supreme Court has held that the speaker of the legislative assembly should decide on a petition seeking disqualification of a member within a period of 3 months this period is not provided in the 10th schedule but the Supreme Court felt that a reasonable period should be 3 months in the exception of you know in the absence of exceptions are reasons. The court said that you know the speaker acts as a tribunal under the 10th schedule and is bound to decide disqualification petitions within a reasonable period which should be 3 months you know it cannot be in perpetuity it cannot be longish that it defeats the purpose itself. Now moving on to paragraph 7 of the 10th schedule this provision bars any court jurisdiction in case of disqualification of a member under this schedule however this schedule does not bar intervention of court under articles 32, 226 and 137 of the constitution of India you know the inherent powers of the court the jurisdiction of the court is not barred. Finally paragraph 8 deals with framing of the rules for disqualification the you know the schedule allows the chairman and the speaker to frame rules concerning their respective legislative houses to deal with the you know disqualification of members you know of the various houses of the legislature so they can define their own procedure. Hope I was able to give you an overview of the anti-defection regime in India I will see you again with some new area of law thank you. Please subscribe to this YouTube channel mentor talk and do press bell button for notifications.