October 10, 2025 07:21 AM IST
First published on: Oct 10, 2025 at 07:20 AM IST
With the Opposition yet to nominate members for the Joint Committee of Parliament announced for considering the three Bills that prescribe automatic dismissal of jailed ministers, introduced in the last Session of Parliament, the options being considered include setting up a panel comprising MPs of the NDA, smaller parties, and Independents.
“The Opposition parties have been sent reminders multiple times. They have not yet informed the Speaker whether they are nominating or boycotting the joint panel,” said a government source.
On August 20, amid scenes of uproar in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the Constitution (One Hundred And Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The Bills propose that if any minister, be it the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Union ministers or state ministers, is 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 positions. The Opposition termed the Bills as “unconstitutional”.
However, the INDIA bloc has since been divided on the Joint Committee of Parliament announced by Speaker Om Birla to study the Bills. One section, including the Left and reportedly the Congress, is in favour of joining the panel, but parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Samajwadi Party (SP) have made it clear they will boycott it. The TMC said it would not send any member to the committee, calling it a “farce”. Sources said the Congress, the SP, and the TMC were among the parties that had been recently sent a reminder.
Formation of a joint committee without the Opposition would be unprecedented, with its credibility under a cloud, said former Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary. “It is a tricky situation. A parliamentary committee consists of all the members nominated by the Speaker. The Speaker has not yet nominated anyone for this joint panel, which consists of members of various parties based on their strength. The Speaker cannot constitute a partial committee. If it has members only from the ruling combine, then we cannot say a full committee has been constituted. It will be an NDA panel, not a parliamentary panel. If it does not have anyone from the key Opposition parties, it will not have any credibility,” he said.
Achary said Speaker Birla could convene a meeting of all parties to persuade them to nominate members to the joint committee to avoid “an unprecedented situation”. “A decision can be made based on consensus,” he added.
The Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore, told The Indian Express, “We have not decided yet (on joining the panel). The Congress leadership, including our president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, will discuss the issue with other parties in the INDIA bloc. The Congress has to evolve a consensus on it… We want it to be an INDIA bloc decision.”
Before this, a joint committee on One Nation, One Election was formed in December 2024 to examine the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and related amendments (Union Territories Laws), which seek to enable simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. In August 2024, a joint panel was set up to look into the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.