The set of provisions in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution that disqualifies legislators who defect from the party on whose ticket they were elected.
- Added by the 52nd Amendment, 1985; the Tenth Schedule lists the grounds for disqualification.
- Grounds: voluntarily giving up party membership, or voting or abstaining against the party whip without permission.
- Decided by the Presiding Officer (Speaker or Chairman), whose decision is subject to concept judicial review (Kihoto Hollohan, 1992).
- The original "split" exception (one-third) was removed by the 91st Amendment, 2003; only a "merger" of two-thirds of members is now protected.
- The 91st Amendment also capped the Council of Ministers at 15 percent of the House strength.
The amendment numbers (52nd and 91st), the Tenth Schedule, and the role of the Speaker are frequent statement-based polity items.
The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection) is distinct from other schedules; after 2003 only a two-thirds merger is exempt, not a one-third split.
Tenth Schedule (52nd Amendment, 1985) disqualifies defectors; the Speaker decides; the one-third split exception was scrapped in 2003.