Functioning of the 17th Uttar Pradesh Assembly

Elections for the 18^th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly will be held from February 10, 2022 to March 7, 2022 in seven phases.  The 17^th Assembly held its sessions between May 2017 and December 2021.  This document analyses the working of the 17^th Assembly up to December 17, 2021. 

• The Assembly held 15 sessions between May 2017 and December 2021 with 101 sitting days.  The Assembly Procedures mandate at least three sessions and at least 90 sittings a year.   The highest number of sittings in a full year during the 17^th term of the Assembly was 25 (in 2018).  
   
• Assembly Procedures also mandate convening a session for at least ten working days with an interval of two months.  The Assembly met twice for more than ten days, and three times for ten days.  Each of these were budget sessions.  60% of total sittings of the Assembly (61 days) were for budget sessions.  The Assembly did not meet for more than seven days during any of its monsoon or winter sessions.  
   
• The longest sitting of the Assembly was 36.4 hours long during the third session of 2019.  The sitting started on October 2, 2019 at 11 am and went on till 11:42 am on the following day.  During this sitting, the Assembly discussed effective steps towards achieving sustainable development goals of the United Nations on the occasion of the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.  The next longest sitting was on March 3, 2021, when the Assembly sat for 11 hours to discuss the state budget for 2021-22. 

• Until December 2021, 146 Bills were introduced and passed in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly (excluding appropriation Bills).   All these Bills were introduced and passed in the same session.  Key enactments include the Uttar Pradesh Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) (Amendment) Act, 2020 and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.    

• The highest number of Bills introduced and passed in the same session was 27, during the second session of 2020.  The Assembly met for only three days in that session. 

• Assembly Procedures provide that a Bill upon its introduction may be sent to a Select Committee for detailed examination.  None of the Bills in this term were referred to a Select Committee.

57 Ordinances promulgated during the term     

During the term, 57 Ordinances were promulgated, 23 of them in 2020.  In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Assembly passed the Uttar Pradesh Public Health and Epidemic Diseases Control Bill, 2020 to ratify the changes brought thorugh an Ordinance.  The Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property Act, 2020 and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 were other key legislations that were first promulgated as Ordinances.
In all, 55 of the Bills passed replaced Ordinances.  Hence, about one in every three Bills passed was to replace an Ordinance.  Some of these Bills include the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Uttar Pradesh Regulation of Urban Premises Tenancy Bill, 2021.
1,307 questions answered in 2021, highest in the Assembly’s term

• The Assembly accepts three types of questions: starred, unstarred and short-notice.  Starred questions refer to questions orally asked on the floor of the Assembly while answers to unstarred questions are given in written form.  Short-notice questions are questions relating to matters of urgent public importance, typically asked with a three days’ notice.
   
• In the session held in February 2021, 1,307 questions were answered in total which was the maximum in the Assembly’s term.  Across all the sessions, 40 short-notice questions were answered. 
   
• No questions were answered in the sessions held in October 2019 and August, 2020.  While the first one was a special session, the latter was held at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Note that the questions that have been accepted in a particular session lapse if they are not tabled during the session.  Questions that have been tabled, but have not been answered by the Ministry remain pending to be answered in the next session.  

Deputy Speaker was elected with only five months left of the Assembly’s term

Sources: Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly website (http://uplegisassembly.gov.in), Uttar Pradesh Session Resume and Synopsis, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the UP legislative assembly (as corrected up to December 2019).  The details on Bills and Ordinances for 2^nd-4^th session of 2021 is based on written response received from the Assembly Secretariat; PRS.