The three bills – The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 – introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, were referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament after Opposition uproar.
As soon as Amit Shah introduced the bills in the Lok Sabha, Opposition members started raising slogans and hurled torn copies of the bills toward Shah, prompting speaker Om Birla to adjourn the House till 3 pm.
However, when the proceedings resumed, Shah proposed sending the three Bills to Joint Committee and the motion was adopted by the House.
The Committee shall have 21 members of the Lok Sbaha and 10 members of the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha members will be appointed by the Speaker, while the Rajya Sabha members will be nominated by the deputy Chairman, since the post of Chairman is vacant due to reaignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.
What are the key provisions of the bills
The three bills provide for legal framwork to remove the prime minister, chief minister, or minister who is arrested and kept in custody for 30 consecutive days on allegations of an offence punishable with imprisonment of five years or more. They shall be removed from office on the 31st day.
The removal will be effected by the President in the case of the Prime Minister or union ministers, the Governor in case of chief ministers, the chief minister in the case of state ministers, and the Lieutenant Governor in the case of the chief minister of a Union Territory.
However, Opposition leaders have argued that they are unconstitutional as they provide for the removal of the elected representatives merely on the basis of allegations.
“The basic thing is that the three Bills are against the basic structure of the Constitution of India. Constitution of India, the rule of law says that you are innocent until proven guilty…It is destructive of the basic structure of the Constitution for the simple reason that its potential for misuse of state instrumentalities is enormous. It is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India…,” said Congress MP Manish Tewari.
RJD MP Manoj Jha said the bills introduced by Home Minister Amit Shah are “draconian” and aimed to turn into reality there concept of Opposition-free democracy.
“There is an important, clear distinction in law between the accused and the convicted. That distinction has ended. So, they are turning into reality their concept of Opposition-free democracy. I alert Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, as well as others in his party – perhaps they want to target someone against them too…,” Jha said.