The Bill is expected to fail in Parliament because the government lacks the required two-thirds majority
| Photo Credit:
–
The government sprung a surprise on the penultimate day of Parliament’s monsoon session by introducing a Bill to amend Articles 75, 164 and 239AA of the Constitution to disqualify the Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, Chief Ministers and State Ministers if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on allegations of offences punishable with five years’ imprisonment.
Two other Bills were introduced to extend the effect of the proposed Constitutional amendment to Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territories. The argument that a Bill of this import ought to have been circulated in advance and properly debated at the time of introduction was dismissed by the ruling BJP as a quibble against the noble legislative intent to purge corruption. A day later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted in rallies that he wants the PM and CMs to be penalised for corruption but the Opposition is running scared. It bears reminding that an existing statute — the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 — has provisions for prosecution of PM and CMs, but is ineffective because the government has not staffed it adequately.
The Bill is expected to fail in Parliament because the government lacks the required two-thirds majority. The BJP may well project the loss as evidence of the Opposition championing corruption. Cynical politics apart, the truly serious aspect of this move is that it upends the foundational principle of presumption of innocence until proven guilty in criminal jurisprudence. Violating principles of natural justice, the proposed law assumes guilt till innocence is proven. By the government’s own admission, of the 193 cases initiated by the Enforcement Directorate against politicians in the last ten years, only two convictions have been achieved. The government wants to penalise Constitutional functionaries with disqualification simply on the basis of arrest and unproven charges. It is also disquieting that all the 12 sitting ministers and CMs — namely Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren — who have been jailed in the last ten years, belonged to the Opposition. At the same time, of the 25 prominent Opposition politicians facing action from central investigation agencies, cases were closed against three and stalled against 20 others when they joined the BJP.
The Constitution guards against precisely such procedural persecution by not mandating automatic removal of PM, CMs or State Ministers simply for their arrest or custody. They hold office on the pleasure of the President/Governor and removal is a matter of either vote of no-confidence in respective legislatures or disqualification governed by the provisions in Article 102 which include office of profit et al. The Representation of People Act, 1951, at the same time, states that members of different legislatures are disqualified only after conviction in criminal cases. There are no grounds to overturn this scheme. If the objective is to instill accountability in public life, there are other ways of achieving that goal.
Published on August 24, 2025
About the Author
