New Delhi: A parliamentary panel examining bills to remove the prime minister, chief ministers and other ministers arrested on criminal charges is likely to adopt its report on the proposed legislations on July 17 and submit it in the Lok Sabha in the Monsoon session, sources said.
If the government wishes, the draft legislations could be approved by the Union Cabinet before being introduced in the Monsoon session of Parliament, likely to begin on July 20.
The reports of the Joint Committee on the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill are likely to be adopted in the panel’s next meeting on July 17, the sources privy to the development said.
The committee is headed by BJP member Aparajita Sarangi. It consulted constitutional experts, retired judges, lawyers and bar association members, government officials and political leaders before completing its task.
Earlier, Sarangi had said there was a unanimous view in the panel’s meetings about the need for decriminalisation of politics.
Several opposition parties have stayed away from the committee, contending that the Bills violate the fundamental principle of law of a person being presumed innocent until proven guilty and resort to automatic sacking of the PM, CMs and ministers if they fail to get bail within a month of arrest in serious criminal matters.
The opposition has also alleged that the Bills are aimed at targeting and destabilising states ruled by non-NDA parties.
NCP-SP leader Supriya Sule, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and YSRCP leader S Niranjan Reddy are the only opposition members in the 31-member panel dominated by the BJP and its alliance partners.
In August last year, Union minister Amit Shah had introduced the three Bills in the Lok Sabha, drawing fierce protests from the opposition.
Subsequently, the draft laws were referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament.
The three Bills propose that if the prime minister, a Union minister or chief minister is arrested and detained in custody for 30 consecutive days for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years, they will lose their job on the 31st day.
Opposing the Bills at the introduction stage, Owaisi said the Constitution was being amended to “destabilise governments”.
Congress leader Manish Tewari voiced similar views, saying an individual is “innocent till proven guilty”.
“This Bill is against the jurisprudence of criminal justice and distorts parliamentary democracy. The Bill opens the door for political misuse and throws all constitutional safeguards to the winds,” he had said.
RSP MP N K Premchandran had said that the Bills were being introduced in “undue haste”.
According to the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, there is no provision under the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 (20 of 1963) for the removal of a chief minister or minister arrested and detained in custody on account of serious criminal charges.
Hence, there is a need to amend Section 45 of the Act to provide a legal framework for the removal of a chief minister or minister in such cases. –(PTI)
