New Delhi, August 20: Opposition MPs on Wednesday tore and threw the copies of the three Bills towards Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha, which seek to remove the Prime Minister or Chief Ministers who are facing allegations of corruption or serious offences and have been detained for 30 consecutive days.
Shah tabled the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, to further amend the Constitution of India and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, apart from the bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. He also proposed sending the bllls to a joint committee of Parliament.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025 seeks to amend section 54 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, to provide a legal framework for the removal of the Chief Minister or a Minister in case of arrest or detention in custody on account of serious criminal charges.
Several Opposition MPs opposed the bills amid huge sloganeering, prompting the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to adjourn the House till 3 pm.
Opposing the Bills, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said, “I stand to oppose the introduction of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025, and the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025.
This violates the principle of separation of powers and undermines the right of the people to elect a government. It gives executive agencies a free hand to act as judge and executioner based on flimsy allegations and suspicions.”
“This government is hell-bent on creating a Police State. This will be the final nail in the coffin of elected governments. The Indian Constitution is being amended to turn this country into a police state. The Chief Minister and the Ministers will not be accountable to the people,” Owaisi added.
Congress MP Manish Tewari claimed that the bill is destructive to the basic structure of the Constitution.
“The basic structure of the Indian Constitution states that there must be the rule of law, and its foundation is that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. This bill makes an investigating officer more powerful than the Prime Minister of India. It violates Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty). It distorts parliamentary democracy, which is again part of the basic structure, by displacing the will of the people. This bill opens the door to political misuse by state machinery whose arbitrary actions have been repeatedly condemned by the Supreme Court. It throws all existing Constitutional safeguards to the winds. This makes the amendment unnecessary and unconstitutional,” Tewari said.
Congress MP KC Venugopal and Home Minister Amit Shah engaged in a verbal spat over the “morality” regarding the bills.
Venugopal said, “This bill is meant to sabotage the basic principles of the Constitution. BJP members 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?”
Replying to Venugopal, Shah recalled that false allegations were made against him.
“Before I was arrested, I resigned on moral grounds, and until I was declared innocent by the court, I did not accept any constitutional position,” he said.
Amit Shah further requested the Speaker to refer the three Bills to a Joint Committee of the Houses consisting of 21 Members of the Lok Sabha to be nominated by the Speaker and 10 Members of the Rajya Sabha to be nominated by the Deputy Chairman. (ANI)
