Is anti-defection law serving its purpose?

Abstract

According to the Anti-defection Law, as per the 10th schedule with articles 102(2) and 192(2), a member of a House belonging to any political party will be disqualified if he/she votes or abstains from voting contrary to the directions issued by the political party without obtaining any permission from the party and such act by the candidate has not been accepted by the party. The elected member will also be considered disqualified if he joins any other political party after winning from contesting with his original political party. The defections of elected members from one party to another can only take place if two political parties merge with each other and a group of one or more than one elected members of the party either support or oppose the merger. And, when at least two-thirds of the elected members of the party in total have agreed to merge with another party (Tenth Schedule). This signifies that the law present considers that the voters vote for the parties no matter who the candidates are, and that the candidates’ competence and capabilities are not considered by the voters in elections. It does not question the existence of internal democracies in parties. Though Election Commission had sent a letter in April 2011 to all the parties to send the details of internal organizational elections, the data received gave incomplete picture as it did not mention the type of elections conducted and only mentioned basic details such as the number of delegates, number of elected members, etc. The judiciary has no jurisdiction in respect to the matters concerning the disqualification of the defectors of any party (S.Sharon, 2020)