Parliament Winter Session in numbers: Amid record suspensions, House most functional this year

Here’s how the Winter Session’s productivity compared to past sessions of the current Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Interruptions notwithstanding

Since the beginning of the 17th Lok Sabha, productivity or the percentage of scheduled time spent functioning has declined consistently. This year’s Budget and Monsoon sessions were the second and third least productive sessions since 2019 but the Winter Session saw a considerable increase in the share of scheduled time spent functioning despite nearly daily interruptions and subsequent suspensions of MPs, particularly over the past week.

While the Lok Sabha was scheduled to conduct 15 sittings, it managed 14 during which it spent 62 hours functioning, or 74% of the scheduled time. This is a marked improvement from 33% in this year’s Budget Session and 43% in the Monsoon Session. However, only four sessions have had a worse productivity rate than this Winter Session.

The Rajya Sabha, too, had 14 sittings against the planned 15. Its productivity stood at 67 hours or 81% of scheduled time spent functioning. Of the 13 sessions of the Upper House since 2019, this Winter Session was the seventh most productive.

Since the beginning of the 17th Lok Sabha, productivity or the percentage of scheduled time spent functioning has declined consistently.

Just five Lok Sabha sessions passed more Bills

In terms of Bills passed, the Winter Session ranks the sixth-highest, with 17 draft laws approved. With 35, the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha remains the most productive in terms of Bills passed. But this session ranked among the lowest for Bills introduced at 10, with the Lower House dealing mostly with pending Bills introduced in previous sessions.

In terms of Bills passed, the Winter Session ranks the sixth-highest, with 17 draft laws approved.

No Bills were introduced in the Rajya Sabha in this session, taking the total number of sessions with no Bill introduced in the Upper House to five since 2019. With 10 Bills passed, this session was the seventh most productive. In the Rajya Sabha too, the first session in 2019 saw the most Bills passed at 29.

No Bills were introduced in the Rajya Sabha in this session, taking the total number of sessions with no Bill introduced in the Upper House to five since 2019.

Most time spent on legislation this year

Since the first session of the current term, hours spent on considering and passing legislation have declined considerably. In the 2019 Budget Session, the Lower and Upper Houses spent 124 and 90 hours, respectively, on legislative business. In this Winter Session, the Lok Sabha spent 37 hours and the Rajya Sabha 32 hours on legislation, making it the most productive session of the year. But for much of this time, most Opposition MPs were absent.

The passage of the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha saw the longest discussion at 5 hours and 41 minutes. In contrast, the contentious Bill amending the appointment process of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners was passed by the Lok Sabha with minimal discussion — the Upper House discussed it for four hours last week — and the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill passed after just 49 minutes of discussion. The three Bills to overhaul India’s criminal laws were discussed for 3 hours and 10 minutes before being passed.

In the Rajya Sabha, two Bills were passed after less than 10 minutes of discussion – the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Bill and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill.

In this Winter Session, the Lok Sabha spent 37 hours and the Rajya Sabha 32 hours on legislation, making it the most productive session of the year.

17th Lok Sabha saw most suspensions on record

After the Winter Session saw 100 Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha get suspended, the number of times Lok Sabha MPs have been suspended is up to 113, the highest on record.

Since 2014, the record has been broken by consecutive Lok Sabhas under PM Narendra Modi.

Until the last decade, the 8th Lok Sabha, which ran from 1984 to 1989 under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, held the record for most MPs suspended at 66. But since 2014, the record has been broken by consecutive Lok Sabhas under PM Narendra Modi. In the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-’19), there were 81 instances of MPs being suspended and in the 17th Lok Sabha, which has one session remaining, there have been 113 instances in the Lok Sabha and 93 in the Rajya Sabha.