SC to Hear Sena (UBT) Plea Against "Unilateral" MP Mergers! ⚖️

The Supreme Court recently agreed to urgently consider a plea filed by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) faction, challenging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision to approve the "unilateral merger" of six of its nine Members of Parliament (MPs) with the rival Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. This development comes ahead of the upcoming Parliament’s Monsoon session, prompting the Uddhav Thackeray-led group to seek an immediate hearing.

Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, representing the UBT faction, highlighted the severe impact of this decision, stating that his political party’s functioning in Parliament has been brought to an "absolute standstill" because the MPs are no longer aligned with them. He orally mentioned before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant that the Speaker has recognized their merger with "some other political party," arguing that this was specifically timed for the Parliament session.

Kamat passionately argued that such "mergers" are becoming a concerning trend across the country. He contended that the concept of "merger," originally designed to protect legislators' rights of expression and intra-party dissent from the stringent anti-defection law, has now been twisted into a "cover for horsetrading." He emphasized that these legislators are bypassing the crucial requirement that any merger must occur at the level of the original political party, not merely the legislative party.

"The six MPs decided to merge unilaterally without the merger of the original political party. They just said ‘we have merged with the rival party’. They have joined a party we had contested against," Kamat stated, underscoring the perceived illegitimacy of the move. He also cited a recent instance where Rajya Sabha Member Raghav Chaddha and six other former Aam Aadmi Party MPs joined the BJP, describing their move as a merger, further illustrating the widespread nature of this practice.

The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) of the Constitution is at the heart of this legal battle. Specifically, Paragraph 2(1)(a) stipulates that Members belonging to ‘any political party’ would be disqualified from the House for defection if they voluntarily gave up membership of the party. Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule further details what constitutes a valid merger, a condition which the UBT faction alleges has been violated in this case. The Supreme Court's decision to hear this urgent plea signifies the gravity of the issue and its potential implications for parliamentary democracy and the anti-defection law in India.

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