Home Minister Amit Shah is all set to introduce three legislations in LS. This legislation will propose the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Union and State Minister in case they are convicted or arrested for serious offences that have a punishment of five years or more jail term.

As per the proposal, if arrested and kept in custody for 30 days, the elected representative will have to resign on the 31^st day or will be automatically removed from the position.

What is the present system?

In the current system there isn’t any such mechanism for the removal of any of the elected representatives, in most cases it has been seen that they resign by themselves. The recent example is former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was in jail for six months in excise case, however he continued to run the government from the jail, until Atishi was made the Chief Minister, similarly in case of Jharkhand, former JMM leader Champai Soren assumed charge during Soren jail term for alleged land scam.

Currently only when convicted, the representative is being removed, as per the law.

The proposed legislation will however, have a scope for the elected representative to be appointed by the President in Centre or the Governor in state, post their release.

Three bills to be amended

The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025 aims to amend Articles 75, 164, and 239AA to establish a legal framework for the removal of the Prime Minister or any union minister, as well as Chief Ministers or ministers in the State Councils of Ministers and in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.

The second bill – Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 aims to amend Section 54 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, providing a legal framework for removal of the Chief Minister or a minister.

The third bill – The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025 proposes an amendment to Section 45 of the government of Union Territories Act, 1963, to create a legal framework for the removal of a Chief Minister or minister of a Union Territory.

These three bills will be scrutinized by the Joint Committee of RS & LS, consisting of 21 members of LS and 10 members of RS. As soon as the bills were circulated to all MPs yesterday night, it drew a lot of criticism.

Opposition Criticism

Gaurav Gogoi, Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha, posted on social media platform X, “The bills of Home Minister Amit Shah are nothing but a desperate attempt to divert the attention of the public away from the blistering Vote Adhikar Yatra of Shri Rahul Gandhi…. Clearly the winds of change are blowing in Bihar.”

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi called it a “vicious circle.” “No guidelines for arrest followed! Arrests of opposition leaders are rampant and disproportionate. New proposed law removes the incumbent #CM etc immediately on arrest. Best way to destabilize opposition is to unleash biased central agencies to arrest opposition CMs and despite being unable to defeat them electorally, remove them by arbitrary arrests!! And no ruling party incumbent CM ever touched it!!”.

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