Parliamentary panel on bills to remove PM, CMs to invite Opposition parties that boycotted it

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee examining bills to remove prime minister and chief ministers on Thursday decided to invite political parties that have boycotted the panel.

The first meeting of the Joint Committee on The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, The Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization (Amendment) Bill, and The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, chaired by BJP member Aparajita Sarangi, also decided to consult constitutional experts and bar association members.

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 a PM, CMs and ministers if they fail to get bail within a month of arrest in serious criminal matters.

NCP-SP leader Supriya Sule, Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, 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.

"Everybody agreed that there should be decriminalisation of politics. It was also decided that we should also go to states and invite all segments of the society – constitutional experts, bar association members, state officials at various levels. We also decided on inviting leaders of the opposition in the states," Sarangi told reporters here.

A member of the committee said a suggestion was made to invite political parties who have boycotted the parliamentary panel, which received overwhelming support.

Owaisi is learnt to have told the committee that there were several laws that allow detention of persons for extended periods of time and would make elected representatives accountable to the investigative agencies, instead of the voters who elect them.

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled to be held on December 17 when representatives of the Ministries of Home and Law and Justice will brief them about the Bills under review.