JPC holds first meeting to discuss 130th Constitution amendment

THe articulate parliamentary citizens committee (JPC) on 130th composition amendment held its number one get together on Thursday and decided to meet the parties that have boycotted the panel and visit states, even as the Opposition questioned the motive of the bill in the first sitting.The Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 20 this year, aims to remove the Prime Minister, chief ministers or ministers facing corruption or serious offence charges if they remain in detention for 30 consecutive days. Prime Ministers have also been kept under the ambit of the bill. The two other bills have been brought to apply similar provisions to Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu & Kashmir.Many INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal had boycotted the panel as they didn’t want to be a part of the panel that might endorse the legislation.Currently, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, NCP (Sharad Pawar) lawmaker Supriya Sule, Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal and YSRCP’s S Niranjan Reddy are the Opposition leaders in the panel.According to functionaries, Owaisi questioned the bill in the meeting and argued that if a lawmaker is arrested, he/she can still continue to be a lawmaker, but an arrested minister would lose his/her post. He also argued that under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, any police officer can easily detain a person or put them in jail for 30 days.Earlier, defending the bills, Union home minister Amit Shah had said, when the Constitution was framed, its makers could not have imagined that in the future, political leaders would refuse to resign on moral grounds even after being arrested. “In recent years, the country has witnessed shocking instances where chief ministers or ministers continued to run governments from jail without resigning. The bills also provide that an accused politician must obtain bail within 30 days of arrest. If they fail to secure bail within 30 days, then on the 31st day, either the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister will have to remove them; otherwise, by law, they will cease to remain eligible to function. Once granted bail through due legal process, such leaders may be reinstated to their positions. Now the people of the country need to decide: Is it right for a minister, chief minister, or prime minister to run a government from jail?”, he said.“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,” JPC chairperson and BJP lawmaker Aparajita Sarangi told reporters.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.