Kerala Election Commissioner A Shajahan on Saturday said that eight elected members to civic bodies have been disqualified in the two years since the last local body polls in Kerala, The News Minute reported.
The Kerala local body elections were held in December 2020 amid COVID-19 restrictions.
The eight turncoats have been replaced by winners of by-polls in their respective wards, Shajahan added inaugurating a workshop organised to observe the 30 th year of establishing the State Election Commission.
The Commission that also serves as a civil court has currently 78 cases under trial.
With the Commission pronouncing the judgment, those found guilty of defection will lose their positions as well as being barred from contesting polls for a period of six years.
The anti-defection law was introduced in 1985 following the fifty-second amendment to the Constitution.
The law came into being after an estimate showed almost 50% of the legislators in the Parliament crossed over to other political parties after the elections of 1967 and 1971, according to the report.
It applies to elected members quitting their party for another or violate the party whip or join a political party after contesting as an independent candidate.
The action against the erring elected members will be initiated upon a complaint lodged by another member of the same elected body or someone chosen by the party accused to do so.
As many as 9,014 candidates had previously been disqualified by the Commission for having not submitted proper accounts of expenditure after contesting the election.