Centre proposes 3 Bills to sack PM, CMs if arrested for 30 days

Facing intense protests of a united Opposition over the Election Commission’s (EC) controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Centre is set to open yet another front of confrontation with its rivals that is expected to boil over even to the next session of Parliament.

The penultimate day (Wednesday, August 20) of the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament will see Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduce three Bills in Lok Sabha, which vest unprecedented powers in Governors and Lieutenant Governors to sack any chief minister or minister of a state or Union Territory who has been arrested and taken into custody.

Shah’s late request to accommodate Bills

Shah wrote late Tuesday (August 19) evening to the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha informing the latter of his intent to introduce the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the Lower House the following day.

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Given the suddenness of his decision and that the monsoon session is scheduled to conclude on Thursday (August 21), Shah also urged the Lok Sabha Secretary General in a separate communication to accommodate his late request by relaxing parliamentary rules that require a minister to serve prior notice for introducing a Bill that is not part of the listed business agreed upon in the Business Advisory Committee. Shah has also sought relaxation of the rule mandating circulation of a Bill to MPs before it is moved in the House . He has informed the Lok Sabha Secretary General that he would refer the three Bills to a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament for scrutiny after introduction in the House.

A communiqué to list the three Bills, along with the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, in Wednesday’s List of Government Business for Lok Sabha has also been sent to the Lok Sabha Secretariat by the Union ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

Bills empower Governors to sack CMs

Expectedly to be brandished by the Centre and the BJP leadership as yet another historic step by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in cracking down against corruption and impropriety in public life, the Bills seek to empower Governors and Lieutenant Governors to sack any chief minister or minister who has been arrested and kept in custody for a period exceeding 30 consecutive days against an offence “which is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or more”.

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The Bills propose only a minor difference in the process that a Governor or Lieutenant Governor needs to follow while sacking a minister in the state or UT as opposed to the one prescribed for removal of a chief minister though the net result in either case would be the same – removal of the person concerned from office.

An incarcerated minister “shall be removed from office” by the Governor or Lieutenant Governor, as the case may be, upon the advice of the chief minister “to be tendered by the 31st day” after being taken into custody. However, even if the CM does not tender such advice to the Governor or L-G, the minister concerned shall cease to hold office “from the day falling thereafter”.

In the case of the chief minister, the Bills propose that the individual must tender his resignation “by the 31st day” after his/her arrest and detention, failing which he/she shall cease to hold office from the following day.

President’s power to remove PM

The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill would also vest powers in the President of India to sack a Prime Minister or Minister in the Union Council on similar grounds. The provisions for removing an incarcerated Prime Minister or Minister will be similar to the ones stipulated for chief ministers and ministers in a state or UT. As such, the Bill proposes that the President may either sack a Union minister on the advice of the Prime Minister by the 31st day following arrest and detention and if the Prime Minister doesn’t offer such advice then the minister would, in any case, cease to be part of the Union Council from the day following the expiration of the 31-day period.

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In the case of a Prime Minister, the Bill provides that the individual “shall tender his resignation by the thirty-first day after such arrest and detention, and if he does not tender his resignation, he shall cease to be the Prime Minister with effect from the day falling thereafter”.

What Opposition says

At face value, the inclusion of the Prime Minister and members of the Union Council of Ministers may seem like the Centre is pushing a legislation that truly intends to be even-handed when dealing with tainted politicians across the political spectrum. The Opposition, however, disagrees.

“Over the past 11 years, have you seen a single Union minister, chief minister or minister in a BJP-ruled state being arrested by any investigative agency? The answer is a resounding no. On the other hand, see how CMs, MPs and ministers in Opposition ruled states have been targeted. Rahul Gandhi lost his membership of the last Lok Sabha after he was given the maximum possible punishment in a baseless defamation case. Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, P. Chidambaram, DK Shivakumar, Hemant Soren… the list of Opposition leaders who have been arrested by various agencies and kept in jail for months without any case against them reaching, forget conviction, even a trial is endless. Despite all of this, you really expect these proposed laws to be applied uniformly to politicians across party lines,” Pramod Tiwari, the Congress’ deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, told The Federal.

Senior advocate and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who has represented a battery of Opposition leaders in cases foisted against them by various central agencies posted on X, “What a vicious circle! No guidelines for arrest followed! Arrests of opposition leaders rampant and disproportionate. New proposed law removes incumbent CM etc immediately on arrest. Best way to destabilise 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!!” (sic).

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien too slammed the government on X, asserting, “In the dead of night, more stunts from the shaky 239 seat Modi coalition as they look for more ways to mock and disrupt Parliament.”

Noting that his party would comment officially on the Bills once they are introduced in Parliament, a CPM MP told The Federal, requesting anonymity, that inclusion of similar provisions for dismissal of a Prime Minister or Union minister are “nothing but a smokescreen to legitimise a set of laws whose only intent is to harass Opposition leaders and destabilise or topple governments run by Opposition parties”.

“We have all seen how central probe agencies have been compromised by the Modi government over the past decade and been forced to go after Opposition leaders. Every single probe agency today is headed by people who have been handpicked by Modi and Shah, despite objections or dissent notes from the Leader of Opposition. How can you expect these probe agencies to investigate, arrest and even detain the Prime Minister or any member of his government… since 2014, despite so many allegations against so many BJP MPs and ministers, have you seen a single arrest happening. One MP was accused of sexually harassing our women wrestlers, a Union minister was accused of shielding his son who ran over and killed protesting farmers in UP; did any of them face arrest,” the CPM MP asked.

Modi’s ‘commitment towards zero tolerance’

Sources in the BJP, however, claim that the Bills show Modi’s “commitment towards zero tolerance” for impropriety, corruption and misconduct in public life. A senior Union minister told The Federal that the Bills were being “brought in national interest” as the current laws do not provide for any remedy to a situation where a chief minister or minister has been incarcerated for a prolonged period, which directly hampers effective governance and even a fair probe.

“Arvind Kejriwal refused to step down as Chief Minister when he was arrested in the liquor scam and for six months, the Delhi government had to function from jail. There was also that minister from Tamil Nadu (Senthil Balaji) who (Tamil Nadu chief minister) MK Stalin shamelessly refused to sack even after he had been arrested. Should such a situation be allowed in a democracy,” the Union minister said requesting anonymity and asserting that Shah will “explain the need for these laws when he introduces them in Lok Sabha”.