New Delhi: The central government is likely to push the highly controversial Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. The joint parliamentary committee (JPC) examining this historic anti-corruption legislation is expected to approve its final report on July 17 with a few key amendments. Following the panel’s formal nod, the Centre will evaluate the recommendations before seeking Cabinet approval to table the bill for final consideration and passage in the upcoming parliamentary session, which is scheduled to commence on July 20.
Popularly dubbed as the bill that could show the path to jail for top executives, the legislation proposes a stringent constitutional framework targeting corruption and ethical standards in public life. According to its provisions, if a sitting Prime Minister, Union Minister, State Chief Minister, or provincial minister is arrested and remains in judicial custody for 30 consecutive days, they will be legally mandated to resign from office. This automatic disqualification clause specifically applies to criminal offences that carry a minimum punishment of five or more years of imprisonment. Under the proposed mechanism, an affected individual will automatically lose their constitutional position on the 31st day of continuous detention.
Sources close to the development indicate that the 31-member JPC, led by BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, is expected to retain the core provisions of the draft legislation in its final report. However, recognizing the immense potential for political vendetta, the panel might recommend specific legal safeguards and thresholds regarding the nature of the crimes to prevent executive overreach or systemic misuse against political rivals. The main objective of the ruling coalition remains focused on upholding constitutional morality and preventing leaders from unethically running governments from inside prison cells.
The draft bill has triggered an intense political stand-off, with major opposition parties vehemently opposing its introduction. Critics from the INDIA bloc argue that unseating democratically elected representatives purely on the basis of custody and detention, before any judicial conviction or formal framing of charges, fundamentally violates the bedrock legal tenet of being innocent until proven guilty. Several opposition parties previously boycotted the committee’s proceedings, resulting in the panel functioning with minimal non-NDA representation, including AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule, YSRCP’s N. Niranjan Reddy, and nominated MP Sudha Murty.
Alongside this structural change, the central government intends to establish similar frameworks for Union Territories by introducing the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill. Because current regulations lack an explicit legal procedure to remove a jailed Chief Minister or minister within a Union Territory, the government plans to amend Section 45 of the 1963 Act. This will provide Lieutenant Governors and the President with clear statutory powers to act in such situations, closing an existing legal loophole that has long complicated regional governance during structural crises.
