‘50% Parliament sessions concluded ahead of schedule’

The last five sessions of the Parliament were adjourned sine die ahead of the schedule losing a total of 29 sittings in the process.

Three of these five sessions were cut short due to COVID-19 pandemic and one due to elections to some State Assemblies (though not specifically stated). Sources said today that this does not seem to be an exception or an aberration, since 51 per cent of the 63 sessions over the last 20 years were concluded ahead of the schedule for various reasons.

After the winter session of Parliament was adjourned sine die on December 22, a day ahead of the schedule, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu desired to know the trend of such adjournments in the past, sources said.

Research undertaken by the Rajya Sabha secretariat revealed that since the 193rd session was held during July-August, 2001, 32 of the 63 sessions, till the just-concluded winter session, ended before schedule. While 25 sessions (40 per cent) of the 63 ran full course, 6 sessions (9 per cent) concluded beyond the scheduled duration.

On account of running short of the scheduled calendar of sittings, Rajya Sabha has lost a total of 108 sittings (7.42 per cent of the total scheduled sittings) over the last 20 years. With the House meeting beyond the schedule for a total of 23 sittings in 6 sessions, the net loss in sittings was 85 accounting for 6 per cent of the total scheduled sittings of 1455 over 20 years, sources added.

Over the last seven years, of the 25 sessions held since the 231st in June 2014, 14 sessions fell short of the schedule accounting for 56 per cent of the total. 3 of them were affected by the pandemic outbreak. Of the total scheduled sittings of 507 during this period, the House lost a total of 39 sittings (7.69 per cent of the total scheduled sittings). Rajya Sabha sat for an extra 8 sittings during the 249th session, reducing the net loss of sittings to 31 (6 per cent of the total scheduled sittings).

The above analysis suggests that Rajya Sabha loses a net of about 7 per cent of the total sittings due to pre-mature adjournments of the House, sources said.

Reasons for such early adjournments include disruptions, agreement among the parties, government’s proposals, elections and the pandemic recently.