PM, CM, Minister to lose chair if in custody for 30 days: Bills in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: A Prime Minister, Chief Minister and union and state ministers who are arrested and detained in custody for consecutive 30 days for offences that attract a jail term of at least five years will lose their chair on the 31st day, according to three bills to be introduced in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

However, according to the Bills, nothing prevents them from being subsequently appointed as Prime Minister, Chief Minister or ministers on their release from custody.

Home Minister Amit Shah will introduce The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill and The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the Lower House. A motion to send the three Bills to a Joint Committee of Parliament for further scrutiny will also be moved by Shah.

In identical Statements of Objects and Reasons, the Bills said there is a need to amend the law for providing a legal framework for “removal” of the Prime Minister, Union Minister and Chief Minister and ministers in states and union territories who are arrested and detained in custody on account of serious criminal charges.

“A Minister, who is facing allegations of serious criminal offences, arrested and detained in custody, may thwart or hinder the canons of constitutional morality and principles of good governance and eventually diminish the constitutional trust reposed by people in him,” it said.

It said elected representatives “represent hopes and aspirations” of the people and are “expected that they rise above political interests and act only in the public interest and for the welfare of people. “It is expected that the character and conduct of Ministers holding the office should be beyond any ray of suspicion,” it said.

Seeking to insert a new provision 5(A) in Article 75 of the Constitution, The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill proposes that a Minister, who for 30 consecutive days is arrested and detained in custody, on allegation of committing an offence “under any law for the time being in force” and punishable with a jail term to five years or more, shall be removed from his office by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister on 31st day.

If the Prime Minister does not send such an advice by the 31st day, the Minister will cease to hold the office with effect from the day falling thereafter.

In case of a Prime Minister who is in custody for 30 consecutive days, the Bill says that he “shall tender his resignation by the 31st 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.”

Similar provisions are there for state ministers and Chief Ministers. In states, the Governor would be taking action. In Delhi and other union territories, the action will be taken by the President while in Jammu and Kashmir, the Lieutenant Governor is the authority that takes action.

The issue of leaders continuing in power had become a matter of contention following the arrest of then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji in cases.

Balaji was arrested in a money laundering case when he was a Minister in 2023 and Chief Minister MK Stalin recommended to Governor R N Ravi to allot portfolios held by him to other ministers but retained him in the cabinet. But Ravi took objection to his continuance in the cabinet and dismissed him from the council of ministers unilaterally. However, Stalin refused to remove him and maintained that it was his prerogative to appoint or remove ministers.