Closure by compartments
Topic: Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Closure by compartments is one form of closure (a way of cutting a debate short so the matter can be put to vote). The clauses of a bill or resolution are grouped into parts, called compartments, before the debate begins. Each part is then debated and voted on as a whole, not clause by clause. This saves time on long bills while still allowing some debate on every group of clauses.
Example
A bill has 60 clauses. The House may split them into four groups of 15 and set aside a fixed time for each group. When that time ends, the whole group is put to vote together.
Don't confuse with
- Kangaroo closure: only the key clauses are debated and the rest are skipped and treated as passed. In closure by compartments, every group still gets some debate.
- Guillotine: here all remaining matters are put to vote together without any discussion once the time allotted is over.
Related concepts
- Substantive motion
- Closure motion
- Kangaroo closure
- Motion of thanks
- Adjournment motion
- Suspension of business motion
- Censure motion
- No-confidence motion
- Confidence motion
- Resolution