DISCERNING THE LAW ON POLICTICAL DEFECTION IN WORLDS LARGEST DEMOCRACY

Political parties in India have seen a number of party defections from its elected members since the inception of the democratic process in the country and in many cases these defection have resulted in change of governments too. But why has the situation reached this point since India has a law on Defection which is 37 years old and has seen changes and revision. The paper evaluates the provisions of the Anti-defection law and observes that the law has had serious misgivings since its beginning and things have been made more difficult for it through improper application in different cases and these instances also suggest that the law was drafted in such a way that defections would favour the ruling party. The paper also provides for instances where the Anti-defection law and its provisions has been found to be lacking any teeth to prevent defection and cases where through the mechanism under the law it has been purposely made to fail in its objectives of combating anti-defection, provide stability of elected government and commitment to party allegiance. An attempt has also been made to study the trends around anti-defection law in other democracies and suggest methods for improvement in India. Keywords: Anti-defection, democracy, disqualification, elected government, merger, para, party affiliation, political affiliation, Speaker, Stability, tenth Schedule.