No decision for 3 years, anti-defection pleas against 2 MPs lapse, reveals RTI

Disqualification petitions under the anti-defection law remained pending for nearly three years during the previous Lok Sabha and eventually lapsed without any final decision after the House was dissolved, an RTI response accessed by India Today has revealed.

The reply from the Lok Sabha Secretariat showed that only one disqualification petition has been received in the ongoing 18th Lok Sabha so far. The plea, filed in March 2026 by JD(U) MP Dileshwar Kamait against MP Giridhari Yadav, is currently pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

The RTI response also shed light on how anti-defection proceedings in the previous Lok Sabha remained unresolved for years before becoming infructuous upon dissolution of the House.

According to the Secretariat, a disqualification petition against Trinamool Congress MP Sisir Kumar Adhikari was filed in May 2021 by TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. Sisir Kumar Adhikari is the father of BJP leader and current West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Another petition was filed in July 2021 against YSRCP MP K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju by YSRCP Chief Whip Margani Bharat.

Both petitions were referred to the Committee of Privileges in January 2022 for preliminary inquiry. However, no report was submitted by the committee and no final decision was taken by the Speaker before the 17th Lok Sabha was dissolved on June 5, 2024.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat clarified in its response that both petitions effectively lapsed after dissolution of the House.

Explaining the legal position, the Secretariat cited established parliamentary practice and said dissolution “passes a sponge over the parliamentary slate”, meaning all pending business before the House and its committees automatically comes to an end.

Quoting the parliamentary reference text Practice & Procedure of Parliament by MN Kaul and SL Shakdher, the Secretariat stated: “Once the House has been dissolved, the dissolution is irrevocable. The consequences of a dissolution are absolute and irrevocable. In Lok Sabha, which alone is subject to dissolution under the Constitution, dissolution ‘passes a sponge over the parliamentary slate’. All business pending before it or any of its committees lapses on dissolution.

The RTI application had also sought details regarding the total number of disqualification petitions pending before the Speaker, the number of petitions disposed of in the current Lok Sabha, and the time taken to decide such pleas in the current and previous Lok Sabhas.

However, the Lok Sabha Secretariat declined to disclose parts of the information, citing exemption under Section 8(1)(c) of the RTI Act, which pertains to matters involving parliamentary privilege.

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