Defection is one of the biggest roadblocks for any democracy and is not a new phenomenon in the world’s biggest democracy, India. The country has seen regular defections since 1967 due to the caprice of MP’s/MLA’s who had switched their allegiances away from the parties they backed during the election, or refused to support their party in risky situations, such as casting votes on a noconfidence motion. This forced the parliament to interpolate the Anti-Defection Law i.e. the Tenth Schedule in the Constitution of the country in 1985. The Anti-Defection law in India failed to keep up the expectations of the electorate and made the en bloc defections more frequent. The Tenth Schedule in its current state is in shambles. The present democracy is the “aye ram gaya ram” democracy where the MLAs are looking for ways to escape from the anti-defection law. The current situation in Maharashtra is another example of how the MLAs are finding ways to make the anti-defection law ineffective. The law which was once thought to be impeccable is now easily penetrable. Unless the required amendment is not made, the spirit of democracy could vanish in the upcoming years. The paper focuses on the problem that has arisen in the landscape of Maharashtra’s Politics and the ineffectiveness of the AntiDefection law to deal with the current situation. It also tries to dissect the Supreme Court judgment pertaining to the apparent quagmire of ‘Split without Merger’ in the Shiv Sena camp.
