Parliament Diary

Here are the highlights of what happened in Parliament today:

Question Hour was suspended in both the Houses as the Parliament started with legislative business at 2PM. The Finance Bill, 2020 was passed with amendments in Lok Sabha. Before adjourning sine die, two Bills were introduced in the House. These are the National Forensic Sciences University Bill, 2020 and the Rashtriya Raksha University Bill, 2020. 

An extension was given for submission of the Joint Committee Report on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019. The Committee will now submit its report by the second week of the Monsoon Session. 

In Rajya Sabha, the Pesticide Management Bill, 2020 was introduced. Rajya Sabha then took up the discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bills for 2020. They were returned to Lok Sabha after clause-by-clause consideration. Before adjourning, the Appropriation Bills for 2020 and the Finance Bill, 2020 were also returned. 

With both Houses adjourned sine die, the Budget Session has come to a close. The Parliament has cut its session short, adjourning eight days ahead of schedule, due to the Coronavirus outbreak. 

PRS has put together data on the functioning of Parliament during this Budget Session, covering time spent on legislative business, overall productivity etc. You can read how the Parliament functioned in this session here .

Some highlights from the Session: 

• 17% of the Central government’s expenditure (including Ministry of Railways) was discussed in Lok Sabha, and the rest were guillotined. 
   
• Lok Sabha spent most of its time (39%) discussing the budget, which is higher than the average of budget sessions in the past 15 years (33%).
   
• Article 93 of the Constitution states that Lok Sabha will choose two Members of the House to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker as soon as possible. Lok Sabha does not have a Deputy Speaker after 280 days.

We’ve also compiled data on the current status of the Bills before both Houses. You can find out which bills were passed and which are still pending before the Parliament here .