Parliament functioning in Monsoon Session 2022

Parliament functioning time second lowest so far in the 17th Lok Sabha

• In this session, Lok Sabha functioned for 47% of scheduled time, while Rajya Sabha functioned for 42%. Scheduled time for each House is six hours per sitting. Both Houses were adjourned multiple times throughout the session.

• In Rajya Sabha, 23 Members were suspended for a week for protesting in the well of the House.  In Lok Sabha, four Members were initially suspended for the rest of the session; the suspension was revoked later.

Parliament saw limited legislative activity; six Bills introduced, five passed by Parliament

Table 1: Time spent on Bills (hh:mm)

• At the beginning of the session, the legislative agenda listed the introduction of 24 Bills and passing of 32 Bills. Only six Bills were introduced and five were passed by Parliament. Bills introduced include the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was withdrawn.

• In this session, only the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was referred to a Standing Committee.  So far, in the current Lok Sabha, 13% of Bills introduced have been referred to Committees. This is lower than the last three Lok Sabhas: 60% in the 14^th, 71% in the 15^th, and 27% in the 16^th Lok Sabha.

Price rise was the only non-legislative discussion initiated in both Houses

• Lok Sabha spent 6.4 hours discussing the issue of price rise, while Rajya Sabha discussed it for 5.8 hours. The last time Parliament discussed the economic situation of the country was during the Winter Session of 2019.

• A debate initiated in the last session on the need to promote sports in India continued in Lok Sabha and was not concluded.

Question hour functioned for 47% of scheduled time in Rajya Sabha and 34% in Lok Sabha

• Question Hour was also disrupted several times during the session. In Lok Sabha, 14% of the starred questions (require oral answers from Ministers) were answered orally. The corresponding figure was 27% in Rajya Sabha.

• Question Hour was held for the entire duration of one hour only on two days in Lok Sabha and four days in Rajya Sabha. Unlike other business of Parliament, time lost during Question Hour (on account of adjournments) cannot be made up by sitting till late.

Note:  Due to COVID-19, Question Hour was suspended in Monsoon Session 2020.

More than three years after commencement, Lok Sabha still does not have a Deputy Speaker

• 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.

• In the 17^th Lok Sabha, election to the post of Deputy Speaker has not been conducted even after three years since it first convened.  There has just been one instance in the past – 269 days during the 12^th Lok Sabha – when it took over three months to elect a Deputy Speaker.