What is the Tenth Schedule? The anti

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal has approached the Supreme Court challenging the interpretation of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with the anti-defection law. His petition argues that the current interpretation allows legislators to avoid disqualification by engineering mergers with other political parties, Live Law reported.

The plea comes amid a series of political realignments involving legislators from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shiv Sena (UBT) joining other parties. Sibal has also pointed to pending cases, including the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)'s challenge to the approval of the merger of some of its MPs with the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Why has Kapil Sibal approached the Supreme Court?

According to Sibal's petition, the existing interpretation of the Tenth Schedule permits splinter groups to avoid disqualification by taking the route of a political party merger. The matter was mentioned before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana on Wednesday morning.

Mentioning the matter for urgent listing, Sibal said the petition raises the question of whether the composition of Parliament can change in the "fashion in which it is happening in this country and the interpretation of the tenth schedule paragraph 4 in that context."

"What is happening in this country? If this continues, 10th Schedule (of the Constitution of India) will become (moot)...There is another plea listed (UBT Sena)," Sibal was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench. The Supreme Court has agreed to list Sibal's petition.

The Tenth Schedule, commonly known as the anti-defection law, was added to the Constitution through the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1985. It lays down the provisions for disqualification of legislators on the ground of defection.

The law applies to members of Parliament and state legislatures under Articles 102(2) and 191(2) of the Constitution.

The Tenth Schedule provides that a member may be disqualified if a member belonging to a political party can lose their seat if they voluntarily resign from that party or vote, or abstain from voting, against the party's direction without prior approval. The provision states that voting or abstaining against the party's direction will not lead to disqualification if the party condones the action within 15 days.

For the purpose of the law, an elected member is treated as belonging to the political party that nominated them for the election. A nominated member is considered to belong to the party of which they were a member at the time of nomination or, if they were unaffiliated, the first party they join within six months of taking oath.

The law also provides that a member elected without the support of any political party will be disqualified if they join a political party after the election. Similarly, a nominated member faces disqualification if they join a political party more than six months after taking oath.

Under the Tenth Schedule, questions on whether a member has incurred disqualification are decided by the Chairman or the Speaker of the House concerned.

Under the Tenth Schedule, a member is not disqualified if their original political party merges with another political party. The exemption applies if the member either joins the new party formed after the merger or chooses not to accept the merger and continues to function as a separate group.

For the purpose of the anti-defection law, the new political party or the separate group is then treated as the member's political party after the merger. The Tenth Schedule also states that such a merger is recognised only if at least two-thirds of the members of the legislature party agree to it.Continue Reading(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)