india-map

FIND YOUR MP

Switch to Hindi (हिंदी)
  • MPs & MLAs
    Parliament States
  • Legislatures
    Parliament
    Session Track Parliament Diary Parliament Committees Primer Vital Stats
    States
    Legislature Track Vital Stats
    Discussion Papers
  • Bills & Acts
    Bills Parliament Acts Parliament Bills States State Legislative Briefs Acts States
  • Budgets
    Parliament States Discussion Papers
  • Policy
    Discussion Papers Science & Technology Policy Monthly Policy Reviews Annual Policy Reviews Committee Reports President Address Vital Stats COVID-19
  • LAMP
    About the LAMP Fellowship How to Apply Life at LAMP Videos Meet our Fellows Get in touch
  • Careers

FIND YOUR MP

Parliament States
Session Track Parliament Diary Parliament Committees Primer Vital Stats
Legislature Track Vital Stats
Discussion Papers
Bills Parliament Acts Parliament Bills States State Legislative briefs Acts States
Parliament States Discussion Papers
Discussion Papers Science & Technology Policy Monthly Policy Reviews Annual Policy Reviews Committee Reports President Address Vital Stats COVID-19
About the LAMP Fellowship How to Apply Life at LAMP Videos Meet our Fellows Get in touch
  • Legislatures
  • State
  • Vital Stats
  • Functioning of the 13th Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha

States

  • Legislature Track
  • Vital Stats
  • Discussion Papers
PDF

Functioning of the 13th Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha

Vital Stats

Functioning of the 13th Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha

Election to the 14th Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha will be held on November 12, 2022.  This document analyses the functioning of the 13th Assembly, which held sessions between January 2018 and August 2022. 

The Assembly sat for 28 days a year on average

 imageNote: (i) FS – First Session, BS – Budget Session, MS – Monsoon Session, WS – Winter Session; (ii) A one-day special session was held on January 7, 2020.  Data for this session has been included with the 8th session.

image

  • The 13th Assembly sat for 15 sessions in total, averaging at three sessions a year. The 10th session was summoned, but later cancelled.
     
  • The Assembly functioned for 139 days in total, with an average of nine sitting days per session. The first and 15th sessions were the shortest, lasting four days each. Budget sessions were the longest, ranging from 13 to 17 days. On average, non-budget sessions lasted for six days.
     
  • State legislatures in India sat for 25 days on average between 2016 and 2021. Himachal Pradesh Assembly sat for 30 days a year during this period, higher than the national average.
     
  • The average duration of one sitting was 4.2 hours. The longest sitting was 7 hours and 55 minutes long and was held on March 8, 2022, when the Budget was discussed.

Question Hour held on 124 sitting days

image

  • 73% of notices received for starred and unstarred questions were admitted. Three notices for short notice question were received and only one out of these was admitted. 14% of the admitted starred questions received supplementary questions.
     
  • On average, 40 members (over 70% of non-minister members), sent notices for questions in each session. Around 1.3 minutes were spent on each question answered orally in the House.
  • Members may ask starred, unstarred or short notice questions to Ministers. Ministers respond to starred and short notice questions orally, to which supplementary questions may be asked. Unstarred questions are answered in writing.

61 Bills passed; 48% Bills passed on the same day of introduction or the day after 

  • 62 Bills (excluding Appropriation bills) were introduced in this Assembly. Out of these, 61 have been passed, and 55 have received assent. 48% of Bills (29 out of 61) were passed on the same day of introduction or the day after.

image

  • Two Bills were sent to Select Committees.     These are the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural Produce Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2019. The latter was not passed by the end of the Assembly’s term. The Himachal Pradesh Protection of Depositors’ Interest (In Financial Establishments) Amendment Bill, 2018 was withdrawn after passing by the Assembly, since Parliament had passed a similar law.

image

  • 10 Ordinances were promulgated between 2018 and 2022. Nine were replaced by legislation, and one lapsed.
     
  • In terms of subjects, the highest number of Bills were related to urban governance (8), taxation (7), and education (6). Some key Bills passed were the Himachal Pradesh Police (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2019, and the Himachal Pradesh Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Bill, 2021.

 90% of demands were guillotined

image

image

  • After the budget is presented, it is debated in two stages. First, there is a general discussion on the budget.  The general budget discussion lasted for an average of 14.4 hours every year. On average, 41 members (including ministers) participated in the discussion each year (60% of the strength of the House).
     
  • The second stage of the budget discussion involves a detailed discussion and voting on the demands for grants (budgetary allocation to departments/ministries). 32 demands were presented in the budget each year. On average, 29 demands (90% of the total) were guillotined every year, i.e. passed without debate.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all demands were guillotined in 2020.

226 Debates raised under various Rules  

image

  • The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Rules of Procedure provide MLAs with various mechanisms to raise issues and discussions in the House. These include calling attention motions, half-an-hour discussions, matters of public importance, short duration discussions, and special mentions.
     
  • 226 debates were raised in the Assembly under these provisions.  This is 60% of all notices for debates admitted to the House.

Sources:  Statistical Statements and Bulletins of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Annual Review of State Laws 2021; PRS. 

DISCLAIMER: This document is being furnished to you for your information.  You may choose to reproduce or redistribute this report for non-commercial purposes in part or in full to any other person with due acknowledgement of PRS Legislative Research (“PRS”).  The opinions expressed herein are entirely those of the author(s).  PRS makes every effort to use reliable and comprehensive information, but PRS does not represent that the contents of the report are accurate or complete.  PRS is an independent, not-for-profit group.   This document has been prepared without regard to the objectives or opinions of those who may receive it.

Follow Us

Creative Commons License

PRS Legislative Research is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Disclaimer: This data is being furnished to you for your information. PRS makes every effort to use reliable and comprehensive information, but PRS does not represent that this information is accurate or complete. PRS is an independent, not-for-profit group. This data has been collated without regard to the objectives or opinions of those who may receive it.

  • About Us
  • Careers
Copyright © 2023    prsindia.org    All Rights Reserved.