Paragraph 4
The Merger Exception and the 91st Amendment, 2003
Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule protects members from disqualification if their original political party merges with another party, provided at least two-thirds of the members of the legislature party have agreed to the merger. This is sometimes called the "Twin Test": (i) an actual merger of the original party with another party, and (ii) at least two-thirds of the legislature party's members consenting to and acting upon that merger.
- Before the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003, Paragraph 3 additionally provided a "split" exception — if at least one-third of a legislature party broke away, they were exempt from disqualification; the 91st Amendment deleted this split exception entirely
- Only the two-thirds merger exception under Paragraph 4 survives today, made deliberately more stringent than the deleted one-third split threshold
- The interpretive question raised in the current petition is whether two-thirds of a legislature party can itself trigger a valid "merger" claim without an underlying, genuine merger of the political parties at the organisational level
● Tracked since April 24, 2026 · last seen July 27, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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