Anti-Defection Law Explained: The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution

In June 2026, a group of about 20 elected members broke away from one party and announced that they would join a small registered party. This move once again drew attention to the anti-defection law. Legal experts disagreed on whether such a step is allowed, and the debate is a useful way to understand the rules that govern party-switching by elected representatives.

The anti-defection law is contained in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which was added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985. Its main aim is to stop elected members from changing parties for personal gain after winning a seat on a party ticket. Under this law, a member can be disqualified in two main situations: if the person voluntarily gives up membership of the party on whose ticket they were elected, or if the person votes or refuses to vote against the official instruction (the whip) of their party without permission. A member who joins another party after the election can also be disqualified.

The law does provide one important exception, often called the merger provision. A member is protected from disqualification only when the original party itself merges with another party. For this to count as a valid merger, at least two-thirds of the members of that party in the legislature must agree to it. Members who accept the merger are safe, and those who refuse it may continue as a separate group. The key point is that the merger must be of the parties, not just a group of members deciding to walk away on their own.

The person who decides these disputes is the Presiding Officer of the House, that is, the Speaker in the Lok Sabha or a State Assembly, and the Chairman in the Rajya Sabha. When a complaint of defection is filed, the Speaker examines it and decides whether the member should be disqualified. Until that decision is made, the member usually continues to sit and vote in the House. The Supreme Court has held that the Speaker acts like a tribunal in these cases and that this decision can be reviewed by the courts.

The anti-defection law tries to balance two ideas: keeping governments stable by discouraging frequent party-hopping, and protecting the freedom of members to follow their conscience. Critics point out that the wide power of the whip can reduce healthy debate, while delays by the Speaker in deciding cases can weaken the law in practice. For these reasons, the Tenth Schedule remains an important and much-discussed part of Indian constitutional law.