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Informist, Monday, Jul. 27, 2026

NEW DELHI –  The Supreme Court Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the interpretation of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which according to the petitioner advocate Kapil Sibal, allows legislators to avoid disqualification under the Anti-Defection Law by taking the route of a political party merger. "Tenth Schedule is intended to regulate the mechanism between the legislators. We have upheld the Tenth Schedule. We have been seeing it. There are enormous issues with the Tenth Schedule. But, who made it? It's the making of the members of Parliament, it is for the problems of the legislators to be decided. However, we will issue a notice," said the apex court.

 

The petition questioned whether the composition of Parliament and legislative state Assemblies could be systematically altered through political party "mergers" that serve as a loophole to bypass the anti-defection law. The Parliament and state Assemblies are being altered by these so-called political mergers, he said. The plea challenged an interpretation of the Tenth Schedule that allows splinter groups to escape the anti-defection law by adopting the route of merger.

 

"These are issues typically to be raised before the floor of the House; if not, then at least before political parties," said the apex court. The Tenth Schedule is intended to regulate the mechanism between legislators, it said. 

 

The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which contains the anti-defection law, provides for the disqualification of legislators who voluntarily leave their political party or vote, or abstain from voting, contrary to the party's directions. However, the law exempts disqualifications in some cases, by saying that a member of a House will not be disqualified if his original political party merges with another political party. This merger, in turn, only holds if not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such a merger, the law states.

 

Sibal said there were huge repercussions, because due to mergers, the electoral majority could be turned into a minority verdict. "Electoral verdict can be changed through this process. A majority can become a minority and a minority can become a majority," said Sibal. 

 

Recently, the Supreme Court issued a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on his decision to approve the merger of six Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray or UBT) members of Parliament into the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The petition was filed by Arvind Ganpat Sawant, a member of the Shiv Sena (UBT) party, challenging the speaker's order. In 2022, in a split led by Shinde, 40 of the Shiv Sena's 56 legislators had broken away, allegedly under pressure from central investigative agencies. The split led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. The breakaway group formed a new government with the Bharatiya Janata Party, with Shinde as chief minister.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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