Merger exception
Topic: Political Parties, Party Systems and Anti-defection · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"
Meaning
The merger exception is in Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule, the anti-defection law added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985. A legislator is not disqualified for defection if their party merges with another party and at least two-thirds of the legislature party (the party's members in that House) agree to the merger. It is now the only group exception left, because the 91st Amendment (2003) deleted the one-third "split" exception. Critics say it lets group defections continue under the name of "merger".
Example
Suppose a party has 15 MLAs in a state assembly. If 10 of them (two-thirds) agree to merge with another party, none of the 10 is disqualified. If only 9 agree, the exception does not apply and they can be disqualified. The exception has been used this way in Goa (2019).
Don't confuse with
- Split (anti-defection): this was the old Paragraph 3 rule, which protected a breakaway group of just one-third. The 91st Amendment deleted it in 2003. A merger needs two-thirds and is still in force.
Related concepts
- 91st Constitutional Amendment Act 2003
- Split (anti-defection)
- Kihoto Hollohan case
- Keisham Meghachandra Singh case
- Subhash Desai case