Poll bound Nagaland hit by defection
- January 23, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Poll bound Nagaland hit by defection
Subject : Polity
Section: Parliament and State legislature
Concept :
- Undeterred by the frequent defection of its legislators in northeastern states, Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United has decided to contest the upcoming Nagaland assembly elections scheduled in the last week of February.
Anti-defection law
- The Tenth Schedule was inserted in the Constitution in 1985 by 52nd amendment.
- It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.
What constitutes defection?
The law covers three kinds of scenarios.
- One is when legislators elected on the ticket of one political party “voluntarily give up” membership of that party or vote in the legislature against the party’s wishes. A legislator’s speech and conduct inside and outside the legislature can lead to deciding the voluntarily giving up membership.
- The second scenario arises when an MP/MLA who has been elected as an independent join a party later.
- The third scenario relates to nominated legislators. In their case, the law specifies that they can join a political party within six months of being appointed to the House, and not after such time.
- Violation of the law in any of these scenarios can lead to a legislator being penalised for defection.
- The Presiding Officers of the Legislature (Speaker, Chairman) are the deciding authorities in such cases. The Supreme Court has held legislators can challenge their decisions before the higher judiciary.
- The law does not provide a time-frame within which the presiding officer has to decide a defection case.
- The supreme court held that ideally, Speakers should take a decision on a defection petition within three months.