Adjournment

Topic: Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Adjournment means the presiding officer pauses a sitting of a House for a set time, such as a few hours, days or weeks. The session does not end, and the House meets again at the fixed time [2].

It matters because it is the most common way a day's work in Parliament stops. It is also the mildest way: unlike prorogation or dissolution, all pending business stays alive.

Explanation

How it works

• Who does it: the presiding officer. This is the Speaker in the Lok Sabha and the Chairman in the Rajya Sabha [2].
• What it does: it pauses a sitting, which is one day's meeting of a House, about six hours (NCERT) [2].
• For how long: for hours, days or weeks. A time and date to meet again are fixed [2].
• What survives: the session goes on, so every pending bill, motion and notice stays alive.
• A session is the run of sittings from a House's first sitting until prorogation, the formal end of a session [2].

Two kinds of adjournment

Kind	What happens	Effect
Adjournment	The House is paused, and a date and time to meet again are fixed	The session continues [2]
Adjournment sine die ("without a day")	The House rises without fixing a date to meet again	The session's business closes. The prorogation order usually comes afterwards, often a few days later [2]

When the presiding officer adjourns

• Routine end of a day's work: the House is adjourned to the next sitting day.
• No quorum: quorum is the smallest number of members who must be present before a House can do business.
• Art. 100(3): quorum is one-tenth of the total membership, counting the presiding officer. For a 543-member Lok Sabha, this is 55.

• Art. 100(4): if there is no quorum, the presiding officer must adjourn the House or suspend the sitting until there is a quorum.

• Disorder: when members disrupt the House, the presiding officer can adjourn it to restore order.

Limits

• Adjournment can only pause a sitting. It cannot end a session (that is prorogation) or end the House (that is dissolution).
• Adjournment is ordered by the presiding officer. Summoning, prorogation and dissolution belong to the President (Art. 85).

In the Constitution and practice

• Where the power comes from:
• Art. 85 does not mention adjournment. It deals with summoning (Art. 85(1)), prorogation (Art. 85(2)(a)) and dissolution (Art. 85(2)(b)).
• The day-to-day power to adjourn comes from the Rules of Procedure of each House [2].

• Art. 100(4) is the one place where the Constitution itself names adjournment, as the remedy when there is no quorum.

• How a House stops working, from mildest to strongest: 1. Adjournment. Done by the Speaker or Chairman. The sitting pauses and the session continues [2]. 2. Adjournment sine die. Done by the Speaker or Chairman. No date is fixed to meet again, and the session's business is over [2]. 3. Prorogation (Art. 85(2)(a)). Done by the President on the government's advice. The session ends [1].

  • Bills do not lapse (Art. 107(3)) [1].
  • Pending notices lapse, except notices to introduce bills [1]. 4. Dissolution (Art. 85(2)(b)). Done by the President. It ends the Lok Sabha itself. The Rajya Sabha is never dissolved (Art. 83(1)) [2].

• Link to ordinances: an adjourned House is still "in session". The President can make ordinances (temporary laws made by the executive, under Art. 123) only when Parliament is not in session, so ordinances usually follow prorogation, not adjournment.

• In practice:
• Frequent adjournments caused by disruption cut the time Parliament actually works.
• In the 17th Lok Sabha (2019–2024), the Lok Sabha worked 88% of its scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha 73% [4].
• Class 11 NCERT lists absence of quorum, boycotts and walkouts among Parliament's problems. Each of these can lead to adjournment.

Don't confuse with

• Adjournment sine die: an ordinary adjournment fixes a date to meet again. Sine die fixes no date and closes the session's business. Both are done by the presiding officer [2].
• Prorogation: adjournment pauses a sitting and is done by the Speaker/Chairman. Prorogation ends the session and is done by the President (Art. 85(2)(a)). After prorogation, pending notices lapse [1].
• Dissolution: this ends the Lok Sabha itself, and bills pending in it lapse. Adjournment ends nothing except that day's sitting, and no bill or notice lapses.
• Adjournment motion: this is a device that lets a member move to set aside normal business so the House can discuss an urgent public matter. It is a tool for questioning the government, not the presiding officer's power to pause the House.

Prelims Hooks

• Adjournment and adjournment sine die are done by the Speaker/Chairman. Prorogation and dissolution are done by the President (Art. 85(2)(a) and (b)) [2].
• Adjournment ends a sitting, not a session. All pending bills, motions and notices stay alive.
• Art. 100(4): if there is no quorum, the presiding officer must adjourn the House or suspend the sitting. Art. 100(3): quorum is one-tenth of total membership, including the presiding officer.
• After adjournment sine die, the prorogation order usually follows, often a few days later [2].
• Trap: "Notices lapse on adjournment." This is wrong. Notices lapse on prorogation (except notices to introduce bills), and bills do not lapse even then (Art. 107(3)) [1].
• Trap: "Ordinances can be made while a House stands adjourned." This is wrong, because the House is still in session. Art. 123 needs Parliament to be not in session.

Mains Points

• Adjournment as a symptom of disruption:
• Repeated adjournments caused by protests eat into sitting time. That time has already fallen from about 130 days a year in the 1950s to about 70 in the 2000s [4].
• Lost hours mean less scrutiny of bills, budgets and policy. Examples are the Rajya Sabha's 73% productivity in the 17th Lok Sabha [4].

• Reform ideas: a legal minimum of about 120 sitting days a year [3], and making up lost hours by adding sittings.

• The presiding officer's discretion:

• Adjournment lets the Speaker or Chairman cool tempers and protect the House's dignity.
• But if it is used too readily, it can stop the Opposition from raising issues and shield the government from questions.

• Fair and predictable use of the power is key to the neutrality expected of the Chair.

• Quorum and attendance: Art. 100(4) makes adjournment the remedy when there is no quorum. Low attendance therefore directly wastes the House's time. Clear attendance rules and accountability of MPs would reduce such adjournments and strengthen deliberation.

Related concepts

• Session of Parliament
• Summoning of Parliament
• President's special address
• Adjournment sine die
• Prorogation
• Dissolution of the Lok Sabha
• Lame-duck session
• Lapse of bills
• Quorum

Read more

• Sessions, sittings and the life of a House