The story so far: The Maharashtra Assembly Speaker has refused to disqualify 40 MLAs of the Eknath Shinde faction after recognising it as the real Shiv Sena. He held the appointment of whip by this group as valid. He also did not disqualify 14 MLAs of the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) group due to technical reasons under the Tenth Schedule.
Why was the Tenth Schedule made?
The defections of legislators during the 1960s and 70s from their parent parties created political instability in many States, bringing down elected governments. Therefore, to ensure the stability of elected governments, the 52nd constitutional amendment introduced the ‘anti-defection’ law through the Tenth Schedule in 1985. This Schedule provides that a member of a House of Parliament or State legislature who voluntarily gives up the membership of their political party or votes against the instructions of their party in a House are liable for disqualification from said House. This instruction with respect to voting is issued by the ‘whip’ of a party. A ‘whip’ is a member of the ‘legislature party’ in a House who is appointed as such by the respective ‘political party’. The ‘political party’ is the entire organisation of a party including the legislators, while the ‘legislature party’ is only the members of a political party in a House of Parliament or State legislature.
