Decline of Parliament? Sittings, productivity and disruption

Detail

What "decline of Parliament" means

• Decline of Parliament means Parliament has lost ground to the cabinet, the small group of senior ministers who run the government.
• Parliament still has its legal powers on paper.

• In practice, the cabinet sets the agenda and Parliament mostly approves what it brings.

• Signs of decline:

• fewer sittings (days on which a House actually meets)
• disruptions (shouting or protests that force the Chair to adjourn the House)
• walkouts and boycotts, where members leave or stay away in protest
• missing quorum (the minimum number of members needed for a valid sitting, which is one-tenth of the House under Article 100(3))
• bills (draft laws) passed with little scrutiny

Who decides when Parliament meets

• Article 85: Parliament must meet at least twice a year, and the gap between two sessions cannot be more than six months [5].

• Under the Government of India Act, 1935 the gap could be 12 months. Dr B.R. Ambedkar's draft cut it to six [5].

• The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (a group of ministers) decides when Parliament meets. The President then formally calls the members together (summons them) [5].

• So the government in power controls the calendar. This is one reason sittings have fallen.

• By convention (custom, not law) there are three sessions a year: Budget (late January to April/May), Monsoon (July–August) and Winter (November–December). India has no fixed parliamentary calendar [5].

The evidence: sittings over time

Lok Sabha	Sittings (whole term)
1st (1952–57)	677, in 14 sessions
2nd (1957–62)	567
10th (1991–96)	423
13th (1999–2004)	356
16th (2014–19)	331 (NCERT figure)
17th (2019–24)	274, the fewest of any full-term Lok Sabha

• Only four Lok Sabhas had fewer sittings than the 17th, and all four were dissolved before finishing their five-year term [2].
• Sittings per year: the Lok Sabha met more than 120 days a year in the 1950s–60s. In the last decade it met about 70 days a year [5].
• 2020 had only 33 sitting days because of COVID-19 [2][5].

The 17th Lok Sabha (2019–24): how much scrutiny?

• Bills:
• 179 bills were passed, not counting Finance and Appropriation Bills [2].
• 58% were passed within two weeks of being introduced [2].
• 35% were passed with less than one hour of debate in the Lok Sabha.
• Only 16% were sent to committees, small groups of MPs who study a bill in detail. This was lower than in the three Lok Sabhas before it [2].

• Only 9% were passed with a recorded vote (each MP's vote noted) [2].

• Question Hour is the first hour of a sitting, when MPs ask ministers questions. It ran for 60% of its scheduled time in the Lok Sabha and 52% in the Rajya Sabha [2].

• Only 24% of the questions listed for oral answer got an answer in the Lok Sabha [2].

• Budget scrutiny: 80% of the budget was passed without discussion. In 2023 the figure was 100% [2].

• Deputy Speaker: none was elected for the whole term. This was the first time it had ever happened [2].
• Suspensions: MPs were suspended 206 times across both Houses [2].
• Private Members' Bills are bills moved by MPs who are not ministers.
• 729 were introduced, but only 2 were discussed [2].

• No private member's bill has been passed by both Houses since 1970 [2].

• Adjournment motions set aside regular business to discuss an urgent public matter. None was taken up in the 17th Lok Sabha, and none in the 16th either [2].

• Time worked: the 17th Lok Sabha worked 88% of its scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha 73% [2].
• So the problem was not only lost time. Even the time used gave little room for scrutiny.

Parliamentary productivity

• Parliamentary productivity is the share of a House's scheduled time that it actually spends working.
• Venkaiah Naidu, Rajya Sabha Chairman (2021):
• Rajya Sabha productivity was about 78% in 2004–14.
• It fell to about 65% after 2014.

• It hit an all-time low of 35.75% in 2018.

• Monsoon Session 2025 (21 July – 21 August 2025, 21 sittings):

• The Lok Sabha worked 29% and the Rajya Sabha 34% of its scheduled time [3].
• About two-thirds of the planned time was lost to disruption. This was the weakest session of the 18th Lok Sabha so far [3].
• Question Hour ran 23% of its time in the Lok Sabha and only 6% in the Rajya Sabha [3].
• The debate on Operation Sindoor took about 19 hours in the Lok Sabha and 16 hours in the Rajya Sabha [3].
• 15 bills were still passed by both Houses [3]. Laws got through, but there was little debate on them.

Other symptoms

• Quorum failures, boycotts and walkouts (Class 11 walkout cartoon).
• MPs facing criminal cases: Class 8 counts this as a challenge to how well legislatures work. The ADR analysis of the 2024 winners tracks this share.
• Anti-defection law (Tenth Schedule, added by the 52nd Amendment, 1985):
• An MP who votes against the party whip (the party's official instruction on how to vote) can be disqualified (lose their seat).
• So MPs rarely vote independently, and the government's majority is almost certain to win every vote (see political-parties).

The counter-view: Parliament is not finished (Class 11 exercise 8, Dolly vs Sudha)

• Governments have fallen on the floor of the House:
• 1990: V.P. Singh lost a confidence vote (a vote in which the House says whether it still supports the government).
• 1997: H.D. Deve Gowda lost a confidence vote.
• 1999: A.B. Vajpayee lost a confidence vote by one vote.

• These show that collective responsibility (the whole Council of Ministers holds office only while it has the Lok Sabha's support, Article 75(3)) still works.

• Disruption as a political tool:

• Opposition protest has sometimes forced the government to take back a decision (the 1998 and 2002 rollbacks).

• So disruption is sometimes a way to win concessions, not only a breakdown.

• Committees work away from the cameras.

• In the 17th Lok Sabha there were about 1,700 committee meetings [2].
• The 24 Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs, permanent committees that each watch over a group of ministries) gave about 1,100 reports [2].

• The three Financial Committees gave about 180 reports [2].

• Parliament is more open: proceedings are televised, and Sansad TV started in 2021.

• Balanced conclusion:
• What has declined is deliberation (careful debate) and scrutiny, not Parliament's legal power.
• The decline tracks three things: single-party majorities, confrontational politics and a calendar set by the government.

Remedies in outline

• More sitting days:
• The NCRWC (National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, chaired by Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah) reported on 31 March 2002.

• It recommended a minimum of 120 days a year for the Lok Sabha and 100 days for the Rajya Sabha [4].

• Private members' bills on the calendar:

• Pawan Kumar Bansal proposed at least 120 sitting days a year [5].
• Naresh Gujral's 2017 bill proposed four sessions a year, including a 15-day special session on urgent public issues [5].

• Neither has been adopted [5].

• Class 11 proposals (exercise 5): longer sessions, compulsory attendance and penalties for disrupting the House.

• Routine committee scrutiny of bills, instead of leaving referral to the government's choice.
• Class 8's conclusion: Parliament gets better when citizens are informed, the public is consulted on bills and young people take part.

• Vajpayee: "Governments will come and go … but this country must survive, its democracy must live on."

• Procedural reforms in detail are covered in parliamentary-procedure.

Prelims Hooks

• Article 85: the gap between two sessions cannot be more than six months. There is no fixed minimum number of sitting days [5].
• Parliament's sitting dates are set by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, and the President summons the Houses [5].
• The 17th Lok Sabha held 274 sittings, the fewest of any full-term Lok Sabha. The 1st held 677 [2].
• 17th Lok Sabha: 16% of bills went to committees, 35% passed with under one hour of debate, and no Deputy Speaker was elected, a first [2].
• NCRWC (2002, Justice Venkatachaliah): minimum 120 sitting days for the Lok Sabha and 100 for the Rajya Sabha [4].
• Monsoon Session 2025: the Lok Sabha worked 29% and the Rajya Sabha 34% of scheduled time. Rajya Sabha Question Hour worked only 6% [3].
• Rajya Sabha's lowest productivity was 35.75% in 2018 (Venkaiah Naidu, 2021).
• Quorum is one-tenth of the total membership of a House (Article 100(3)).
• Trap: no private member's bill has passed both Houses since 1970 [2].
• Governments that lost confidence votes on the floor: 1990 (V.P. Singh), 1997 (Deve Gowda), 1999 (Vajpayee).

Mains Points

• What has declined is control, not power.
• Parliament keeps every power the Constitution gives it.
• But fewer sittings (274 in the 17th Lok Sabha) [2], bills passed within two weeks, and only 16% of bills sent to committees [2] mean the executive now sets the pace.

• This weakens legislative oversight (Parliament's job of checking what the government does).

• Disruption has two faces.

• It can win concessions, as in the 1998 and 2002 rollbacks, and it gives a weak opposition a voice.
• But in the Monsoon Session 2025 it cost about two-thirds of the House's time [3], and the opposition lost Question Hour, its own best tool.

• Ruling-party flexibility (making time for opposition debates) and penalties for disruption should go together.

• Structural causes:

• The government controls the calendar (Article 85 sets only a maximum gap) [5].
• The Tenth Schedule whip makes MPs vote with their party.
• Single-party majorities shrink the need for consensus (broad agreement).

• Reform should therefore be about institutions, not personalities.

• Reform package:

• a fixed calendar with NCRWC minimums of 120/100 days [4]
• committees examining bills by default
• a set time for opposition business
• a protected Question Hour
• an elected Deputy Speaker
• informed citizens and public consultation on bills (Class 8)