PIL filed before Bombay HC challenges a paragraph in anti-defection law 

Meenakshi Menon files PIL to challenge Tenth Schedule's defection law. PIL states it leads to alienation of public, wastes taxpayers' money & takes voters for granted. Seeks to declare paragraph 4 of Schedule ultra vires & stop legislators from defecting.

A plea has been filed before the Bombay High Court challenging a paragraph in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India on the defection law.

Meenakshi Menon, founder-trustee of Vanshakti, a Mumbai-based environmental NGO filed a public interest litigation (PIL) urging the court to declare a paragraph providing for “split and merger” of political parties in the Tenth Schedule as ultra vires.

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“Defections in the forms of split and merger under paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule is leading to further alienation of the general public to the process of elections itself wherein thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money are spent without any accountability,” the PIL states. The PIL mentions the recent change of political power and split in the Shiv Sena party to explain the consequences of group defections.

“The elected representative who is allowed to defect goes to the very root of democracy and is contrary to the basic structure of the Constitution of India laid down by the Supreme Court,” the PIL contends.

The petitioner goes on to say the voter is taken for granted and there is no recourse in law for a voter to take action against a legislator.