When Speaker’s role in defection cases was tested in 1993 |
In March 1993, a month into becoming Chief Justice of India, Justice M N Venkatachaliah faced a constitutional crisis. The apex court had ordered Dr H Borobabu Singh, the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, to appear before it, and the Speaker repeatedly refused. The apex court and the Speaker were on a collision course.
In a 1964 face-off between the judiciary and the UP assembly, the legislature had ordered the arrest of Allahabad High Court judges. Justice Venkatachaliah must have wondered what he would do if the Speaker continued to defy the court’s authority and dignity. The 1993 crisis stemmed from a case about the defection of seven Manipur MLAs.
The anti-defection law is back in the news with seven Rajya Sabha AAP members requesting the Rajya Sabha Chairman that they wish to merge with the BJP under the anti-defection law. The secretariat has updated the political party affiliations of these MPs on the Parliament website to the BJP. The defection law may also capture public attention in case there are any hung Houses in the four states, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, whose election results are out on Monday, May 4.
Parliament inserted the Tenth Schedule into the Constitution (popularly known as the anti-defection law) to prevent MPs and MLAs from shifting their loyalty from one party to another. It specifies that the presiding officers of the legislature will decide........