People of India to decide whether PM, CM or minister should run govt from jail: Amit Shah

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the people of the country will have to decide whether it is appropriate for a minister, chief minister or the prime minister to run the government while in jail.

Shah said this hours after he introduced in the Lok Sabha three Bills, which envisage the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers arrested on serious criminal charges for 30 days, drawing fierce protests from the Opposition.

The draft laws were referred to a joint committee of Parliament.

The home minister said on one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought a constitutional amendment Bill to bring himself within the ambit of the law, and on the other hand, the entire Opposition, led by the Congress, has opposed it "to remain outside the law's ambit, run governments from jail and not relinquish their attachment to power".

"Now, the people of the country will have to decide whether it is appropriate for a minister, chief minister or the prime minister to run the government while in jail," he said in a series of posts on X in Hindi.

Shah said seeing the Modi government's commitment against political corruption in the country and the public's outrage, he introduced a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament with the consent of the Lok Sabha Speaker, which ensures that important constitutional posts such as the prime minister, chief minister and ministers at the Centre and in the states cannot run the government while in jail.

"The purpose of this Bill is to elevate the declining level of morality in public life and bring integrity to politics," he said.

The law that will come into existence through these three Bills is as follows: no person, while arrested and in jail, can govern as prime minister, chief minister or minister of the central or state government.

"When the Constitution was framed, our Constitution-makers could not have imagined that in the future, there would be political figures who would not resign on moral grounds before being arrested," he said.

The home minister said that in recent years, an astonishing situation has arisen in the country where chief ministers or ministers have continued to run the government immorally from jail without resigning.

He said the Bill also includes a provision that allows an accused politician to seek bail from the court within 30 days of arrest.

If they fail to obtain bail within 30 days, on the 31st day, either the prime minister or chief ministers in the states will be removed them from their posts, or they will automatically become legally ineligible to perform their duties, he said, adding if such a leader is granted bail after the legal process, they can resume their position.

Shah said the country also remembers the time when "in this very great House" (Parliament), the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, through Constitutional Amendment No. 39, granted such a privilege to the prime minister that no legal action could be taken against them.

"On one side, this is the work culture and policy of the Congress, that they place the prime minister above the law through constitutional amendments. On the other side, the policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party is that we are bringing our government's prime minister, ministers and chief ministers within the ambit of law," he said.

The home minister said a Congress leader in the House also made a personal remark against him, saying that when the Congress "falsely implicated him in a fabricated case" and had him arrested, he (Shah) did not resign.

"I want to remind the Congress that I had already resigned before being arrested, and even after being released on bail, I did not take any constitutional position until I was fully proven innocent by the court.

"The court dismissed the false case against me, stating that it was motivated by political vendetta," he said.

Shah said the BJP and the NDA have always stood for ethical values and party veteran Lal Krishna Advani also resigned from his post as soon as allegations were made against him. On the other hand, he said, the Congress party continues to carry forward the "unethical tradition" started by Indira Gandhi.

The home minister claimed the same Congress party that brought an Ordinance to protect RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, which Rahul Gandhi opposed, is now seeing the same Rahul Gandhi embracing Yadav at Gandhi Maidan in Patna.

He said the public fully understands this duplicity of the Opposition.

Shah said it was clear from the beginning that this Bill would be placed before the Joint Committee of Parliament, where it would be thoroughly discussed.

"Yet, abandoning all shame and decency, the entire INDI alliance, led by the Congress, gathered to oppose it with crude behaviour to protect the corrupt. Today, the Opposition has been completely exposed in front of the public," he said.

The three Bills are the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill 2025; the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025; and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025.

The three Bills have proposed that if the prime minister, Union ministers or chief ministers are 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 thirty-first day.