The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, proposes automatic removal of elected officials – Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and Union Ministers – if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on serious criminal charges
NEW DELHI, Aug 20: Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday introduced in Lok Sabha the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, which proposes to remove the Prime Minister, chief ministers, and ministers under arrest for 30 consecutive days on serious charges, drawing fierce protests from opposition MPs who tore up copies of the draft law and marched close to his seat shouting slogans.
In a charged atmosphere, several opposition MPs spoke against the introduction of the Bills, claiming they violated constitutional principles, targeted federalism, turned the jurisprudence “innocent until proven guilty” on its head, were open to misuse for political reasons and threatened to turn the country into a police state.
Shah, however, batted for an enhanced standing for moral values in public life, saying, “We cannot be so shameless that we continue to occupy constitutional positions while facing serious charges”.
On his proposal, 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 soon as the Bills were introduced soon after 2 pm, opposition members trooped into the well, raising slogans and some even tore copies in front of Shah for the sight to be captured by cameras broadcasting the home minister’s remarks.
A few BJP members, including Union ministers Kiren Rijiju and Ravneet Singh Bittu, stepped out of their seats to prevent opposition members from coming near Shah and waved them to go back to their side of the aisle.
When Congress MP KC Venugopal questioned Shah about his claim of public morality by referring to his arrest in a criminal case when he was the home minister of Gujarat in 2010, the senior BJP leader hit back.
He said he wanted to set the record straight as he had resigned on moral grounds before his arrest on “false” allegations and did not join a constitutional position till he was discharged by the courts.
“What are they (opposition) teaching us about morality? I had resigned. And I want moral values to rise. We cannot be so shameless that we continue to occupy constitutional positions while facing charges. I resigned before arrest,” Shah said.
Opposition MPs, including AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress’ Manish Tewari and Venugopal, and RSP’s NK Premachandran, spoke against the introduction, terming the proposed law against the Constitution and federalism. (PTI)