Resources and changes in Constitution can help strengthen Parliament but key is for legislature to respect it as a forum for debate
The much anticipated special session of Parliament begins today. There was intense speculation about its purpose when the government announced th...
The Indian Parliament is the country’s most open institution regarding data about its functioning. It records its daily proceedings meticulously, and reports of its committees are rich in detail and insight. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have made their records electronically accessible ...
The no confidence debate showed govt-opposition acrimony has reached new levels. Parliament can look at other democracies’ legislatures for ways to reduce political noise
The no confidence motion is a rarely used parliamentary tool opposition uses to hold government accountable. In the 75 y...
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday admitted a motion of no-confidence against the government moved by Congress Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi after a headcount of 50 MPs required under the rules. The motion has been supported by constituents of the opposition INDIA alliance and the Bha...
In 1952, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha published their respective Rules of Procedure. These Rules laid down the details of how the two Houses would function. They also specified the different procedural mechanisms by which Members of Parliament (MPs) could participate in the functioning of the two ...
A modern infrastructure for the functioning of our national legislature is essential. With the inauguration of the new Parliament, we will have a state-of-the-art facility, enabling more convenience and efficiency in the sessions of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Parliament is also investing in tech...
Are you sure we are winning so comfortably?” the senior Congress leader’s voice on the phone sounded anxious. It was the night before counting day in Karnataka where an AxisMyIndia exit poll for India Today predicted a big win for the Congress. I asked the leader why he was so ...
The Tamil Nadu government led by Chief Minister M K Stalin and the state’s Governor R N Ravi have been at loggerheads for some time. An ongoing disagreement is regarding the inordinate delay in the Governor assenting to Bills passed by the state legislature.
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In 1926, while writing in the Asiatic Review journal, parliamentary reporter Edwin Haward compared the proceedings of the House of Commons in London with the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, and decided in favour of the latter.
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The role of governors is in the news again. Their actions across several states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal — have been questioned. Recently, the Supreme Court had to hear a case where the governor of Punjab did not summon the assembly after the cabinet’s recomme...
The Supreme Court ruling devising a three-member committee to select the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) was a landmark judgment. The committee is going to consist of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or the leader of the single la...
The instance where the Kerala High Court, in January this year, suspended the verdict passed by the Kavaratti District and Sessions Court (in an attempt to murder case) in which the then sitting Member of Parliament (MP) of Lakshadweep and Nationalist Congress Party leader P.P. Mohamm...
On February 9, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar protesting the “directions…made by the Chair to authenticate six observations” he had made during his speech in the House the previous day. Kharge pointed out that Pa...
The 1970 Budget is not remembered for the procedural slip-up but for the change in its tone. Until then, Budget speeches were a dry recitation of facts as FMs had yet to start using poetry and couplets.
Saturday, February 28, 1970, was a special Budget day in Parliament. Prime Minister Indira Gan...
In the history of Indian democracy, the constitutional crisis in Uttar Pradesh in 1964 is one of the earliest examples of a confrontation between the judiciary and the legislature that led to the “derailment” of the “governance apple cart”.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar ...
Laws related to religious conversions repeatedly made headlines in 2022. During the year, the state legislatures in Karnataka and Haryana made laws prohibiting forced religious conversions. A few months before elections in Himachal Pradesh, the state legislature amended the freedom of...
This year, Parliament will move from its 90-plus-year-old building to a new one. As part of that transition, it should reimagine its rules to make the institution more deliberative and one that scrutinises laws more thoroughly.
2022 was a turbulent year for our national legislature. There were co...
