Constitution Amendment Bill Remove Pm Cm Minister Detention
I
Indian ExpressVerified Publisher
The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the controversial 130th Constitution Amendment Bill that seeks to remove the ministers upon detention is expected to adopt its report on July 17. While the report is likely to retain the most contentious clause
proposing the automatic removal of Prime Minister, Chief Ministers or other ministers from office if they are arrested and detained in custody for 30 consecutive days for serious offences, there could be some cautious notes for ensuring avoidance of misuse the law for political vendetta, sources said.
The bill will be taken up in the Monsoon session of Parliament, likely to begin on July 20 for consideration and passage, sources said.
Members belonging to the ruling coalition are learnt to have rejected the opposition’s argument that the provisions in the proposed law are undemocratic, anti-federal and contradict the bedrock principle of natural justice, punishing public officials based purely on custody rather than conviction.
The treasury benches are learnt to have argued that 30 days are enough to seek bail for at least three times hence it does not violate the principle of natural justice.
However, the members – the ruling coalition MPs, the opposition and even those neutral – were convinced that the draft bill should add provisions to avoid misuse of the law, sources said. This suggestion will be part of the recommendations, they said. The committee is also expected to recommend that instead of keeping a wider ambit of the law, there should be some restriction on the nature of the crime for using the provisions of the proposed law.
Opposition MPs in the JPC are likely to give a dissent note on the report, sources said. While the BJP and its allies in the NDA dominate the panel, it has AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi and NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule as members. YSRCP’s Niranjan Reddy Sirgapore (Rajya Sabha MP) is also part of the 31-member committee.
The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 seeks to provide for the removal of a Minister if he or she is accused of an offence punishable with five or more years of imprisonment, and he or she has been arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days. The removal, according to the proposed bill, can be done by the President or Governor upon the advice of the Prime Minister or Chief Minister respectively, or automatically on the 31st consecutive day of detention.