The Law Commission of India, in its latest report submitted to the Union law minister, has recommended an amendment to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution that deals with anti-defection law, stating that it would be better if the power to disqualify MPs and MLAs are vested with the President and Governors instead of Speakers and Chairmen.

Law Commission chairman Ajit Prakash Shah submitted the report to Union law minister Sadananda Gowda a few days ago.

The report, along with several other recommendations, comes amid several such cases in Telangana and AP where presiding officers have been accused of bias in dealing with the petitions filed against TD, YSRC and Congress legislators who ‘defected’ to the TRS and TD. The HC has issued notices to the presiding officers of Telangana Legislature on the petitions filed by the Congress and TD.

The Law Commission recommendations are normally placed before the two Houses of Parliament and it is for the Centre to bring in amendments as suggested by the Commission. The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification due to defections by MPs and legislators, vested the powers with the Speaker (Lok Sabha and Assembly) and Chairmen (Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council) and barred interference by courts.

However, the Law Commission has gone through instances where presiding officers allegedly acted with bias in deciding disqualification petitions.

Quoting a judgement, the Law Commission report stated, “The malaise of defection has resulted in an increase in political corruption and instability. Frequent defections made a mockery of the party system resulting in elections, which inevitably burdened the exchequer. Defections revealed the inner state of party politics, which was mired with factionalism and violated natural justice. The court said that the Speaker acted in ‘hot haste’ while disposing off the disqualification petition even though there was no conceivable reason for the Speaker to have taken up the matter in such hurry.”