A look at houses and sessions of the Indian Parliament

After over a year, the monsoon session of the Parliament will on Monday return to normal course of sittings. Having embarked upon a major vaccination drive amid cautious efforts to open up activities after the second wave of the pandemic, the government called for a regular session of both the Houses.

The session among all three scheduled sittings of Parliament is the one usually packed with legislative agenda, coming as it does soon after the budget session where the primary focus of the government is to get parliamentary approval for its year-long financial management.

The outbreak of the virus last year led to a curtailment of the limited duration of monsoon session, doing away with the winter session, and two truncated budget sessions in a row.

Over the 19 sittings till August 13 in the ensuing session, the government intends to move several new Bills while taking forward some introduced earlier.

The session begins against the backdrop of the brutal second wave of the pandemic in the country, a major change in the Union Council of Ministers, a new Leader of the Rajya Sabha.

Ahead of the session, Speaker Om Birla made some significant observations on the functioning of the House, underscoring that during the rest of his tenure, energies will be directed to strengthen parliamentary oversight. In addition, the Speaker wants the House to adapt to the digital way of working. These steps are welcome.

On completion of two years in office, in a series of interviews last month, the Speaker mentioned that during the remaining tenure he wants to make ministries and departments more accountable to Parliament. His articulation included two aspects. One, a mechanism to make sure that governments look into issues members raise under Rule 377, and the second, and more important, is executive action on suggestions parliamentary standing committees offer in its reports.

As per established procedure, an issue raised by a member in the Lok Sabha under Rule 377 is sent to the ministry concerned and as per the decision of the Rules Committee; ministers should send their replies regarding matters raised in the House within one month’s time.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs that keeps a track on progress on its website shows that at least 130 plus matters raised during this year under this rule remain pending. In terms of response received, the pendency is slightly over 10% and a marked improvement from some 30% pendency in the previous House, the Lok Sabha secretariat noted.

Committee meetings

Now the other aspect of committee meetings is of immense importance. Examination of demands-for-grants by various ministries projected in the budget is a critical element of such oversight. The work done in the departmental related standing committees is significant since majority of it is transacted on bipartisan lines and through consensus.

This is one of the primary reasons why suggestions to throw open the meetings of committees to the public or at least to the media were turned down over the years. The closed-door sitting allows parliamentarians to work across the aisle and contribute, rising above party considerations. The argument against making sittings open is that these can lead to grandstanding, removing the hallmark work pattern of the system maintaining its sanctity and secrecy. It is only when the report is tabled or handed over to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha that the report becomes a public document.

On the committee system and its efficacy, a criticism during the pandemic is that the panels could not meet in virtual format, a practice adopted by some other parliaments in these times of Covid-19.

On his part, the Lok Sabha Speaker pointed out there is no provision for such an arrangement in existing rules. Conceding there were members both for and against meetings in digital/virtual format, he said no suggestion was put forward to bring about a change in the rules, which only the House can permit.

In a way, Speaker Birla shows the path for members to take forward the suggestion in a concrete manner through established procedures. Considering the uncertainty over the next wave(s) of the virus and resultant protocols, leadership of various political parties can build consensus and weave into rules a provision for virtual and/or hybrid committee meetings as a concrete measure.

During the last two years of the current Lok Sabha, over half of which was affected due to the global health pandemic, its website shows that a total of 558 sittings were held by various committees and presented 272 reports. As for acceptance of the recommendations by the committees, the government accepted over 1,700 of the over 2,600 recommendations.

Another important and critical element of parliamentary oversight is the scrutiny of Bills to committees of jurisdiction. Over the past few Lok Sabha sessions, the numbers of such referrals have come down.

It is perfectly justified for the government of the day to impress upon the Speaker/Chairman to allow the consideration and passage of a Bill without referral. Yet, convention is to get the Bill(s) examined by the committee and based on the report, the government can take a view of accepting suggestions in parts or otherwise.

The Lok Sabha website shows that during the current Lok Sabha, 10 Bills were referred to committees while in the previous House, 24 Bills were sent for scrutiny. The number stands at 68 in the 15th Lok Sabha.

As the country prepares to celebrate the 70th year of its Parliament in 2022, besides procedures and rules, the House runs on the healthy practices of conventions evolved over the seven-decade voyage and presiding officers often striking a balance to work a way out between processes and policies against the backdrop of politics.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based political commentator)