Disobeying party whip tantamount to defection: Hyderabad High Court
Bench said: “A whip issued by a political party to its elected members is to ensure discipline and prevent horse-trading.\"
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday ruled that when a person disobeys the whip issued by his political party and contests for a post of any local body, the act is tantamount to defection under the AP Panchayat Raj Act, 1994.
A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice Anis was dismissing an appeal by TPCC secretary N. Ashok challenging an order of a single judge refusing to vacate an interim stay granted by a district court on the disqualification of a woman MPTC member in Nizamabad.
Dismissing the appeal, the bench said: “A whip issued by a political party to its elected members is to ensure discipline and prevent horse-trading. Leaders, who suffer on account of the disobedience of the whip, brand the requirement to comply with a whip is “matter of discipline and a curb on corrupt practices”. But when they are benefitted by such disobedience, the very same persons brand such disobedience as the call of the conscience”.
The bench said: “It is not known whether political parties can go to such an extent, in the matter of issue of whip, so as to prevent one of the elected members belonging to their own party even from contesting to the post of president or vice president. The question as to whether a whip can destroy the very democratic fabric of the system by preventing an elected representative from contesting is of a larger nature.”
Referring to the case, the bench said that if the respondent MPTC, without contesting for the post of president, had disobeyed the whip and voted in favour of a candidate nominated by another political party, the same would tantamount to disobedience without any justifiable cause.