Anyone can directly file a petition with the Constitutional Court or the attorney general if he learns someone is plotting to topple democracy or seize the ruling power under the new charter.
However, violation will no longer result in a ban from politics or party dissolution to prevent the clause from being used as a political weapon, Lertrat Ratanavanich, a constitution drafter, said on Tuesday.
The Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) approved the section on constitution protection on the second day of its by-section review on Tuesday.
Under the now-defunct 2007 charter, Section 68 provides: "No person shall exercise the rights and liberties prescribed in the Constitution to overthrow the democratic regime of government with the King as Head of the State under this Constitution or to acquire the power to rule the country by any means which is not in accordance with the modes provided in this Constitution".
Under the old charter, if the violator is an individual, he will face a criminal charge. If it is a political party, it will be dissolved and the right to vote of its executives suspended for five years.
"Lessons in recently years have shown the clause have been used as a weapon for political rivals to destroy one another so the CDC decided today to cut the clauses about political parties," said Gen Lertrat.
The CDC felt criminal penalty is severe enough to deter all. "The party dissolution punishment will likely remain but it will be for other offences in the new charter," he said.
Besides, the text was revised to enable anyone to file a petition with either the Constitutional Court or the attorney general even without proof or witnesses.
He could only do so through the attorney general under the old charter.
"In the past, there were complaints the attorney general had failed to move the case forward," he said.
"The Constitutional Court will also be empowered to order anyone to do anything to stop such act. In the scrapped constitution, it can only order him to stop the violation," the general said.