Gauhati HC strikes down NC Hills Autonomous Council's anti-defection law

The Gauhati High Court has struck down an anti-defection law passed by the NC Hills Autonomous Council, maintaining that it was enacted “without any competence” and was “unconstitutional”.

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury on a petition filed before it by some residents of Dima Hasao district, which comes under the jurisdiction of the council.

The writ petition had challenged the constitutional validity of Rule 18A of the NC Hills Autonomous Council (42nd Amendment) Act, 2017, which provided for the disqualification of elected members of the council on the ground of defection from their political parties.

The newly inserted rule provided that a member of the council belonging to any political party shall be disqualified as a member if he voluntarily gives up his membership of such political party; or if he votes or abstains from voting in the council contrary to any direction or whip issued by the political party.

The High Court, after hearing submissions from the advocates of the petitioners as well as the council and government sides, in its order passed on May 7, struck down the amendment to the legislation as “unconstitutional”.

It held that the NC Hills Autonomous Council, a body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, is not a plenary legislature and lacks competence beyond enumerated subjects to frame laws on.

The court maintained that “in pith and substance, Rule 18A is an anti-defection law, falling outside the Sixth Schedule” and “the field is occupied by the Tenth Schedule, providing a complete constitutional code; and that Rule 18A is ultra vires and unconstitutional”.

“…Rule 18A introduced by the Constitution of N.C. Hills Autonomous Council (42nd Amendment) Act, 2017, is hereby declared to be invalid and null and void, as being a legislation without any competence of the N.C. Hills Autonomous Council to make a law on the subject of defection. Accordingly, we are left with no option but to strike down the afore-noted legislation as invalid,” the high court ruled.