Govt to Introduce Bills for Removal of Ministers on Arrest

• Three bills have been introduced to remove ministers if detained for 30 days.
• The bills apply to the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and other ministers.
• The laws apply to offenses with a jail term of at least five years.

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 20th Aug: The Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to introduce three bills in Parliament today to provide a legal framework for the removal of a Prime Minister, a Union minister, a Chief Minister, or a state or Union Territory minister if they are arrested or detained on serious criminal charges for 30 days in a row.

According to the proposed bills, if any of these officials are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days for an offense with a jail term of at least five years, they will lose their position on the 31st day.

The three bills scheduled for introduction in the Lok Sabha are 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. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will also move a motion to refer them to a joint parliamentary committee.

The bills address the lack of a legal provision for the removal of ministers on arrest, a situation that came into the spotlight with the arrests of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthil Balaji, who did not resign from their posts.

The bills’ introduction, just two days before the end of Parliament’s Monsoon session, has surprised political circles and drawn criticism from the Opposition. Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi stated the bills were a “desperate attempt to divert the attention of the public” from Rahul Gandhi’s “Voter Adhikar Yatra.” Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi called the bills “the best way to destabilise the Opposition” through “arbitrary arrests” by central agencies.