What is Anti-defection law? DO you think that anti defection law weakens accountability mechanism?
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.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar outlined the differences between the presidential and parliamentary forms of government. AMBEDKHAR said that the presidential form (such as in the United States) had higher stability but lower accountability as the President is elected for four years, and cannot be removed except for proven misdemeanour.
In the parliamentary form, the government is accountable on a daily basis through questions and motions, and can be removed any time it loses the support of the majority of members of the Lok Sabha. The drafting committee believed that India needed a government that was accountable, even at the cost of STABILITY.
The political system has found ways to topple governments. For instance, the methods used in Puducherry this week —
of 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;
the way around this has been to resign rather than vote against the party.
In other instances, the Speaker — usually from the ruling party — has delayed taking a decision on the disqualification.
This has led to strange situations such as members who continue to be part of the main Opposition party becoming Ministers (Andhra Pradesh in the term of the last Assembly).
What supreme court said?
The Supreme Court has tried to plug this by ruling that the Speaker has to take the decision in three months.
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