Anti-Defection Law, Explained Without the Jargon

The Tenth Schedule is short, widely cited, and almost never read.

The core rule. A legislator who voluntarily gives up membership of their party, or votes against its whip, can be disqualified. That is the whole engine.

The two-thirds escape hatch. If two-thirds of a legislature party agrees to merge with another, the merger is protected. This is why defection stories are always, secretly, counting stories — one member either side of the threshold changes everything.

The Speaker problem. Disqualification petitions are decided by the Speaker, who is elected from the House and rarely neutral by design. There is no constitutional deadline. A petition can therefore be resolved by the simple expedient of not resolving it until the term ends.

Why it matters. The law was written to stop horse-trading. It arguably raised the price rather than closing the market. Reform proposals mostly target the timeline and the deciding authority.

Read this one before the next "MLAs flown to a resort" headline. It will make the whole genre legible.