'Destructive Of Constitution's Basic Structure' : Opposition Criticizes Centre's Bill To Remove Ministers On 30-Day Arrest

The introduction of the 130th Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which proposes to oust Central or State Ministers from office if they are detained for 30 days in serious offenses, was met with heavy opposition in the Lok Sabha today.

The Bill was introduced by Home Minister Amit Shah, alongwith a motion to refer it to a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The motions were cleared by a voting process and the Bill accordingly referred.

However, when the motion to introduce the Bills was moved, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, Indian National Congress leaders Manish Tewari and KC Venugopal, Revolutionary Socialist Party's NK Premachandran and Samajwadi Party's Dharmendra Yadav vehemently opposed it, while many others raised slogans.

"This violates principle of separation of powers, due process, undermines right of people to elect government. It gives free run to executive agencies based on flimsy allegations, suspicion. Only when an offense is proved beyond reasonable doubt, then only you can lose membership/post. But here, on mere accusation, the punishment of losing one's post will follow. It undermines representative Parliament democracy. This amendment would leave a Minister and CM at the mercy of executive agencies. Has the Home Minister read Art.74(1)? This Bill violates it. This is the 1933 gestapo boom. This government is hell-bent on creating a police state. This will be a death-knell. This is to ensure that democracy does not survive", said Owaisi.

The AIMIM leader, referring to Section 152 of BNS (which is said to have replaced 'sedition' law under IPC), highlighted Amit Shah's "promise" that sedition law will not be used. He claimed that the law has recently been used against a senior journalist of Assam.

"This Bill is destructive of Basic Structure of Constitution, which says there should be Rule of Law. Basis of Rule of Law is innocent until proven guilty. This Bill makes an Investigating Officer the boss of Prime Minister of India. It violates Art.21, the due process clause. Even framing of charge does not substantiate guilt. This Bill turns fundamentals of Art 21 on their head. It distorts Parliamentary democracy by displacing Will of the People. It opens doors for political misuse by instrumentalities of the state whose arbitrary conduct has been repeatedly frowned upon by the Supreme Court. It throws all constitutional safeguards to the winds - collective responsibility, judicial review, no confidence motion and disqualification on conviction", argued Manish Tewari.

"Bill was not circulated among members, [House] procedure not followed...Yesterday after 1 o clock, we received copy of Bill. What is the undue haste and urgency, I want to ask Home Minister...Members are having right to oppose Bill at the time of introduction. That is being curtailed" said Premachandran. Imputing a lack of bonafides, he further said, "This is with the malafide intention to destabilize opposition-rules states in various parts of the country".

Questioning the claim that the proposed law aims to maintain morality in the field of politics, Venugopal on the other hand highlighted that Amit Shah was himself arrested when he was a Minister in Gujarat. "Many are saying this is to bring morality in politics. When Hon'ble Home Minister was Minister in Gujarat, he was arrested! Whether he took morality...", he said.

This caused a huge uproar in the House. The Home Minister, on his part, clarified that he was arrested based on false accusations, yet he resigned from his post prior to arrest and did not accept any constitutional post until his name was cleared.

Even so, Venugopal asserted that the Bill is aimed at targeting Opposition governments. "This is to threaten people like Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar" he said.

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