Why in news?
The Parliament’s Winter Session has been delayed this year.
What is the role of Parliament in a democracy?
- The Constitution provides for the legislature to make laws, scrutinise the functioning of the executive, and hold the executive accountable for its decisions.
- The Constitution provides for MPs to raise issues of public importance in Parliament, and examine the Government’s response to problems being faced by citizens through -
- Debate - which entails a reply by the concerned minister
- Motion - which entails a vote
- Motions are made for discussing important issues such as inflation, corruption, drought, etc. or adjourning the business in the house or to express no confidence in the Government.
- The Government is collectively responsible to Parliament for its actions.
- The Parliament may use various methods including, debates on Bills and issues, questioning ministers during Question Hour and in parliamentary committees.
- Question Hour is one of the forums of holding the Government accountable for its actions.
- During this hour, MPs pose questions to the ministers regarding the implementation of laws and policies by the Government.
Who convenes Parliament?
- The constitution provide for the President to convene the Parliament atleast once in 6 months.
- Since the President acts on the advice of the central government, the duration of the session is decided by the Government.
- However, this practice of allowing the Government to convene Parliament differs from those followed in other countries.
- In a parliamentary democracy, the executive is accountable to Parliament, so there must limited role for the Government in summoning the Legislature.
What is the frequency?
- Lok Sabha met for an average of 130 days in a year during the 1950s but these sittings came down to 70 days in the 2000s.
- This decline indicates that Parliament was able to transact less business compared to previous years.
- To address this, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution has recommended that Lok Sabha should have at least 120 sittings in a year, while Rajya Sabha should have 100.
- There is a lower rate of functioning Question Hour due to the disruptions, which reduce the number of questions that may be answered orally.
- While Parliament may sit for extra hours to transact other business, time lost during Question Hour is not made up.
What best practices can be adopted further?
- Given the legislature’s role in keeping the executive accountable for its actions, the Parliament should convene itself, so that it can effectively exercise its oversight functions.
- There can be a mechanism which scrutinizes and answers the questions asked in the Question Hour with required inter-ministerial expertise and broader government policies.
- UK has the Prime Minister’s Question Time on weekly basis to address the questions posed by MPs. Such measures can be adopted.
Source: PRS India
