MP cannot be disqualified if expelled by party, Centre tells SC

New Delhi, February 1

A parliamentarian does not face automatic disqualification of he or she is expelled from a party but an overt act of defection could invite action, the Central Government told the Supreme Court on Friday.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) PS Narasimha said: “Upon expulsion from a political party, there is no automatic disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution from legislative assembly or Parliament and that member will continue as an unattached member according to the direction of the Speaker”.

"However, if there is any overt act of either joining any other political party voluntarily or defies any whip of any political party then he will attract the provision of the 10th Schedule and action can be taken against him by the Speaker," Narasimha told a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra and Prafulla C Pant.

The Bench is hearing a petition for a review its two-decade-old verdict on the anti-defection law under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

Narasimha further said the 10th Schedule contemplated an "overarching principle" that "a legislator who is born into a House through a political party or as a nominated member or even as an independent candidate shall retain his birth mark and shall continue as such till the dissolution of the House.

"This is the principle contemplated under 10th Schedule by operation of deeming fiction," he said, adding: "This is a constitutional morality contemplated under the 10th schedule".

He submitted that legislators expelled from a party do not operate in the House as "nomads" joining an existing political party at will without attracting 10th schedule.

The anti-defection law became a topic of debate when politicians Amar Singh and Jaya Pradahad approached Supreme Court after they were expelled from the Samajwadi Party on February 2, 2010.

The law states that a member elected or nominated by a political party continues to be under its control even after expulsion.

Amar Singh and Jayaprada said they were afraid they would be disqualified from Parliament if they defied the party’s whip. — PTI