Parliament's Winter Session enters last leg; govt eyes key bills amid tight schedule

New Delhi: The Winter Session of Parliament is entering its last leg on Monday with the government having very little room to push through substantial legislations, amid plans to hold a discussion on air pollution.

There are five more working days but December 19, the last day being Friday, is likely to see adjournment of the session by early afternoon, leaving virtually four days or 24 hours of scheduled business.

The discussion on the first batch of supplementary grants and Appropriation Bills has not concluded in Lok Sabha while one on election reforms is continuing in Rajya Sabha. The discussion on supplementary grants will be scheduled in Rajya Sabha after ongoing debate concludes.

While the first two days of the Session saw protests over Opposition demand to discuss Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had functioned without much disruptions. In the ten working days, Lok Sabha has clocked 62:07 hours of work while Rajya Sabha has seen 57:30 hours of work.

Lok Sabha discussed ‘Vande Mataram for 11:32 hours while the one on election reforms saw 12:59 hours of debate. For Rajya Sabha, it was 13:49 hours of Vande Mataram while debate on election reforms has so far seen 2:57 hours of debate. For both the debates, 10 hours each was allocated in both Houses.

After Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s suggestion that there should be a debate on air pollution, the government has already indicated its willingness to hold a discussion on the issue.

So far, three Bills – The Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill 2025, The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill 2025 and Health Security Se National Security Bill 2025 – have been passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The government has indicated that it plans to bring around a dozen Bills, including ten new ones, but it has not introduced any of them except two.

The last week could see the government introducing the The Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2025 and the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill. While the HECI Bill to set up a regulator replacing UGC and others, the SHANTI Bill is aimed at opening up the nuclear power sector to private players.

It may also see the government placing The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill 2025 seeking to raise foreign direct investment in the insurance sector to 100% in Lok Sabha at the earliest.

The Opposition is all set to demand that these “important” Bills be sent to a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill 2025 will not be tabled this time as the Joint Committee examining the Bill has been granted time till the next Session to submit its report while the The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2025 is also unlikely to come up for passing though the panel examining it is all set to adopt its report on Monday.

While there is no official word, there is speculation that the government may bring a bill to amend the MGNREGA Act to rename it and introduce some tweaks in the ongoing programme.

The government had earlier indicated it also plans to bring Bills like The Repealing and Amending Bill, The National Highways (Amendment) Bill, The Corporate laws (Amendment) Bill, The Securities Markets Code Bill (SMC) and The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill.