Rajya Sabha MP and Advocate Kapil Sibal on Wednesday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court raising concerns that the anti-defection law is being rendered ineffective, Bar and Bench reported.

He challenged the interpretation of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution that allows rebel legislators to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law by merging with another political party.

The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution contains the anti-defection law, which provides for the disqualification of legislators who voluntarily leave their political party or vote, or abstain from voting, contrary to the party’s directions.

It aims to prevent leaders from switching parties for office, personal gain or other incentives.

However, it also exempts disqualifications in some cases. As per the law, “a member of a House shall not be disqualified if “his original political party merges with another political party”. This merger, in turn, only holds “if, and only if, not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such merger”.

Sibal’s petition was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana for an urgent listing, Live Law reported.

Referring to recent defections by MPs and MLAs of several Opposition parties, Sibal contended that the Tenth Schedule was being rendered “moot”, Bar and Bench reported.

“We will list it,” the legal news outlet quoted Kant as replying.

Sibal also told the bench that similar matters are pending before the court.

On Tuesday, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) approached the Supreme Court against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision to approve the merger of six of its MPs with the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

In the case of the Trinamool Congress, a delegation of 20 Lok Sabha MPs met Speaker Om Birla on June 14 and requested that their group be merged with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party, which is a part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Birla on June 19, demanding that the rebel MPs be disqualified.

The TMC has been grappling with factionalism after its loss in the Assembly polls in May.

Its Rajya Sabha strength fell from 13 to nine after three of its MPs resigned from the Upper House in June and joined the BJP on July 9. The party nominated them to the Rajya Sabha hours later.

On June 3, nearly 60 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs rebelled against the party leadership to choose Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Also read: One nation, one party: Is the anti-defection law dead?