JPC defers draft report on PM, CMs removal bill

way2barak, July 18: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has postponed the adoption of its report on the Constitution (138th Amendment) Bill, which proposes provisions related to the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers following a 30-day detention.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Aparajita Sarangi who heads the panel, said on Friday  that it had been unanimously decided that more deliberations are needed, and the draft report will be kept pending, without providing a date for when it will be submitted.

The move to defer the proposed legislations being brought to the House comes after the committee had suggested five changes including that the Bill’s provision of a minister’s “removal” or being made to “cease to be a minister” be replaced with “suspension,” after several stakeholders pointed out that such phrasing carried “an unwarranted air of finality and stigma.” Sarangi’s statement comes a day after the government’s tentative list of business for the monsoon session omitted the bill, including the adoption of the JPC report.