Private Bills seek sitting of Parliament for at least 100 days a year

Proceedings of the Lok Sabha underway during the Budget Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Friday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Senior Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien and Manoj Kumar Jha have moved separate Bills seeking to make the sitting of Parliament mandatory at least for 100 days in a year. The leaders said the move is to reform the Parliamentary system by ensuring that the working hours of the House are not lost due to disruptions.

While Mr. O’Brien has proposed a minimum sitting of 100 days, Mr. Jha has sought 120 days sitting of the House annually. In the statement of objects and reasons of the Constitution Amendment Bill he moved, Mr. O’Brien said that while the idea of a fixed calendar was explored by the General Purposes Committee of the Lok Sabha in 1955, the importance of having a minimum number of sittings was highlighted by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution in 2002.

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“Enshrining the parliamentary convention in the body of the Constitution of India itself will ensure that the Government of the time cannot evade the accountability of the Legislature by delaying the commencement of a Session. It will also allow Members of Parliament to plan their parliamentary agenda around the fixed schedule to fully take advantage of every mechanism of parliamentary oversight and law-making,” Mr. O’Brien said.

Mr. Jha said his Bill is to provide a framework for enhancing the performance of Parliament through fixing a minimum number of days of sitting, introducing the provision for extending the hours of a sitting, bringing a short session in addition to the existing three sessions, instituting a mechanism to separately discuss Opposition business and compensating the hours not utilised due to disruptions.

He has proposed a minimum of 120 sittings, including the short session where no government business will be taken up. Mr. Jha has also suggested the setting up of an Opposition Business Committee of eight members from the Opposition in each House to “determine the Opposition business to be taken in the House at a sitting on Monday.”

“The number of hours unutilised due to disruptions shall be compensated by extending each session by as many hours at the sitting that was adjourned due to disruptions,” his Bill said. “The drastic reduction of parliament productivity has seriously deteriorated the quality of discussion and hampered overall efficiency,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Union Education Ministry opposed the introduction of the Coaching Institutes (Accountability and Regulation) Bill, moved by Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Fauzia Khan saying that education is in the Concurrent List and the States would have to regulate the coaching centres. But when Opposition members insisted that the Bill be introduced, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar said the Centre was ready to discuss the Bill and withdrew the Ministry’s objection. The Bill was eventually introduced in the House.