SC notifies Centre & EC on plea seeking 6-year disbarment of 'turncoat lawmakers'

With three governments changing post-elections in recent years, the Supreme Court on Thursday, notified the Centre and the Election Commission regarding a plea demanding a 'six-year ban be imposed on political turncoats', as per reports. The plea filed by Madhya Pradesh activist Jaya Thakur via advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma has pointed out the reason for which the anti-defection law was inserted in the Constitution in 1985 was to 'curb the evil of political defections motivated by the lure of office or other similar consideration'. A three-bench judge headed by CJI SA Bobade has asked the EC and Centre to examine whether lawmakers who resign to topple a government and then join rival political parties should be barred for six years.

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Plea seeks six-year disbarment of turncoats

Moreover, the plea demanded that any person who quits a party be barred from holding any office of a Minister or any other remunerative political post until the term of the House expires, state reports. Citing the recent examples of  Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, the plea said, "They (turncoats) are defeating the law laid down by the Parliament in the Tenth Schedule, later upheld by the Supreme Court in the Kihoti Hollohan case of 1992". The Supreme Court tagged Thakur’s petition to be heard along with a similar case pending before the Court. The litigant has also requested the Court for an urgent hearing citing several state elections in the upcoming months.

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Madhya Pradesh & Karnataka crisis

The crisis in the Kamal Nath government started when Congress alleged BJP of poaching 4 MLAs - two of which returned to Kamal Nath's folds. Soon, 22 MLAs including 6 cabinet ministers - loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia - quit the party, reducing the Congress to a minority government with 92 MLAs. Following this, Scindia resigned from Congress and then joined the BJP. After Nath stepped down as CM and the Madhya Pradesh Speaker accepted all 22 MLAs' resignation, all of them promptly joined BJP. Scindia's rebellion paid off with 16 rebel MLAs being given cabinet portfolios in cabinet expansion and 19 rebels managed to get re-elected in the by-polls.

In Karnataka, the fall of the previous Congress-JD(S) government occurred between July 1 and 10, 2019, when 15 Congress and JD(S) MLAs resigned from the Assembly. After tendering their resignation, which was not accepted by the Speaker, there was three days of Hotel politics. Most of the MLAs were flown to Mumbai and were kept in a resort while they appealed to the Supreme Court to accept their resignations.

With the Congress and JDS failing to pacify the rebels, on August 26, 2019, the BJP managed to garner 105 votes in the truncated assembly, with the support of its 104 MLAs and the support of an Independent MLA. In last year's bypolls, BJP won 12 seats, Congress won 2 seats and Independent MLA won one seat. While there have been murmurs of Yeddyurappa being replaced as the cabinet expansion is yet to take place, the CM has quashed such reports.

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