No Winter Session of Parliament, government suggests convening Budget Session in Jan 2021

The Winter Session normally starts in the last week of November or first week of December

The Modi Government has ruled out convening of the Winter Session of Parliament on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, a decision the Congress claimed was taken without consulting the Opposition.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi conveyed the decision to Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, saying that he had informal consultations with floor leaders of various political parties.

“...they have expressed their concerns about the ongoing pandemic and opined of doing away with winter session,” Joshi said in the letter to Chowdhury.

Chowdhury said Congress, the main opposition party in Parliament, was not consulted over skipping the winter session of Parliament.

“The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha was not consulted. Mr. Pralhad Joshi is as ususal departing from the truth,” Jairam Ramesh, the chief whip of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, said.

Joshi said the government was willing to have the next session of Parliament at the earliest and that it would be appropriate to have the Budget Session, 2021 in January, 2021 keeping in mind the unprecedented circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Winter months are very crucial for managing the pandemic because of recent spurt in cases during this period, particularly in Delhi. At present, we are in the middle of December and a Covid vaccine is expected very soon,” the minister said in the letter to Chowdhury.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament, which usually begins in July, held in September amid extraordinary measures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The brief session comprising 10 sittings without a day's break too had to be cut short as more than 30 lawmakers and hundreds of support staff in Parliament contracted the infection during the session.

According to the Constitution there should not be a gap of more than six months between two sessions of Parliament.

However, it has been a convention to hold three sessions of Parliament – budget, monsoon and winter – in a calendar year.