Pandemonium in LS as Shah tables 3 Bills for removal of PM, CMs, Mins held for 30 days

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed stormy scenes and ruckus, not seen in the recent past, over the introduction of the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to remove the Prime Minister, a Central or State Minister and chief ministers if they have been kept under arrest for at least 30 consecutive days.

Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the three contentious Bills in the Lok Sabha amid massive uproar and sloganeering by the agitated Opposition members. The Bills were sent by the House to a Joint Committee of Parliament comprising 21 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha for scrutiny. The committee, whose members will soon be named, has been asked to submit its report to the House by the last day of the first week of the next session, expected in the third week of November.

As the three Bills were introduced — the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill – the Opposition was up on its feet and tore copies of the legislation amid rowdy scenes.

The Opposition has described the proposed legislation as “draconian’’ claiming that it would be used by the government to destabilise opposition-ruled states through arbitrary arrests of ministers and chief ministers. A brief slugfest ensued between Congress MP KC Venugopal and Amit Shah over the “morality” of the legislation.

After the Bills were introduced, Venugopal, a senior Congress leader, said, “This Bill is to sabotage the federal system of the country, it is meant to sabotage the basic principles of the Constitution. Leaders of the BJP are saying that this Bill is to bring morality into politics. Can I ask the Home Minister a question? When he was the home minister of Gujarat, he was arrested. Did he uphold morality at that time?”

Hitting back at him, an agitated Shah said, “I want to set the record straight. Fake allegations were levelled against me, but despite that, I abided by morality and ethics and not only resigned but did not accept any constitutional post until I was cleared of all charges. They are trying to teach us morality? I had resigned. I want morality to increase. We can’t be so shameless that we are charged and we continue to hold Constitutional posts. I had resigned before I was arrested.” In 2014, a special CBI court cleared Shah of all charges, citing lack of evidence.

As Shah was proposing that the Bills be sent to a joint committee for examination, Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee and other Opposition leaders tore copies of the Bills and threw them at the Home Minister. Visuals showed pieces of paper falling near the minister. However, Banerjee denied tearing copies of the Bills.

I was cleared of all the charges by the court,” Shah said.

There is currently no provision to remove a sitting minister if they are accused of a serious crime.

According to the three anti-corruption draft laws, the Prime Minister, Chief Minister or minister who is arrested and held in custody for 30 straight days on charges carrying a punishment of five years or more will automatically be removed from office on the 31st day.

However, the Bills say that they could be subsequently reappointed on release from custody.

The government’s move comes against the backdrop of past controversies, when leaders such as former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji continued to hold office despite being in jail.

Hours after he introduced the three bills in the Lok Sabha, Shah said the people of the country will have to decide whether it is appropriate for a minister, chief minister or the prime minister to run the government while in jail.

The Home Minister said on one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought a constitutional amendment Bill to bring himself within the ambit of the law, and on the other hand, the entire Opposition, led by the Congress, has opposed it “to remain outside the law’s ambit, run governments from jail and not relinquish their attachment to power”.

“Now, the people of the country will have to decide whether it is appropriate for a minister, chief minister or the prime minister to run the government while in jail,” he said in a series of posts on X in Hindi.

Shah said seeing the Modi government’s commitment against political corruption in the country and the public’s outrage, he introduced a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament with the consent of the Lok Sabha Speaker, which ensures that important constitutional posts such as the prime minister, chief minister and ministers at the Centre and in the states cannot run the government while in jail.

“The purpose of this Bill is to elevate the declining level of morality in public life and bring integrity to politics,” he said.

“When the Constitution was framed, our Constitution-makers could not have imagined that in the future, there would be political figures who would not resign on moral grounds before being arrested,” he said.

Shah said that in recent years, an astonishing situation has arisen in the country where chief ministers or ministers have continued to run the government immorally from jail without resigning.

He said the Bill also includes a provision that allows an accused politician to seek bail from the court within 30 days of arrest.

If they fail to obtain bail within 30 days, on the 31st day, either the prime minister or chief ministers in the states will be removed them from their posts, or they will automatically become legally ineligible to perform their duties, he said, adding if such a leader is granted bail after the legal process, they can resume their position.

Shah said the country also remembers the time when “in this very great House” (Parliament), the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, through Constitutional Amendment No. 39, granted such a privilege to the prime minister that no legal action could be taken against them.

“On one side, this is the work culture and policy of the Congress, that they place the prime minister above the law through constitutional amendments. On the other side, the policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party is that we are bringing our government’s prime minister, ministers and chief ministers within the ambit of law,” he said.

Shah said the BJP and the NDA have always stood for ethical values and party veteran L K Advani also resigned from his post as soon as allegations were made against him. On the other hand, he said, the Congress party continues to carry forward the “unethical tradition” started by Indira Gandhi.

With Agency Inputs