Author: Akash Tiwari

Defection by Numbers Cannot Masquerade as Merger Under the Constitution The recent development involving two-thirds of the Aam Aadmi Party members in the Rajya Sabha declaring allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party raises a question that goes to the heart of India’s anti-defection framework. The issue is not one of political arithmetic but of constitutional discipline.Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule provides a narrowly tailored exception to disqualification on the ground of defection, in cases of “merger”. However, the constitutional design, especially after the deletion of the provision permitting “split”, makes it clear that merger is not a device for…