Parliamentary sessions are measures for scrutinizing the government.
But there are various concerns with commencement of parliamentary sessions in India.
What is a session of a parliament?
The period during which the House meets to conduct its business is called a session.
The Constitution empowers the president to summon each House at such intervals that there should not be more than a six-month gap between the two sessions.
President shall act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers and there cannot be more than six months between two sittings of Parliament.
Similar provisions exist for State legislatures.
In India, the parliament conducts three sessions each year:
Budget session: February to May
Monsoon session: July to September
Winter session: November to December
What are the concerns in commencement of sessions?
The sessions have been shortened or even merged from the year 2008.
In the last few years, the winter session usually started in the third or fourth week of November and closed just before Christmas.
Given the notice period of two weeks to summon a session, it is unlikely that the commencement of the session will be before the second week of December.
In the initial years of our Republic, Lok Sabha sat for about 125-140 days a year.
But Parliament is being met for just 65-75 days per year in the last couple of decades.
Reduced sessions leads to less scrutiny of the government’s actions, and even that of bills and budgets.
By constitutional mandate it is clear that it is effectively the Prime Minister (or the Chief Minister) who determines when Parliament (or an Assembly) will meet, subject to the gap being less than six months.
What measures needs to be taken?
The structural issue of the government deciding when to summon the legislature, and its ability to adjust the dates in response to emerging circumstances needs to be addressed.
A simple solution to address the session concerns is, to have a calendar of sittings announced at the beginning of each year, this would help members and others plan better for the whole year.
Build in the possibility of additional sittings that the government can require if it needs urgent parliamentary approval needs to be referred from different countries such as
British Parliament -It has year-long sessions thus, the five-year term of Parliament consists of five sessions of a year each.
Pakistan’s constitution - It requires a session of parliament within 14days if one-fourth of its membership demands one. It also states that Parliament should meet at least 130 days every year and there should be at least three sessions.
