Parliament Part Ii

Parliament (Part-II)

• 10 Nov 2021
• 16 min read

Parliament (Part-I)

Leaders in Parliament

• Leader of the House: Under the Rules of Lok Sabha, the ‘Leader of the House’ means the Prime Minister (or another minister who is a member of Lok Sabha and is nominated by the PM to function as the Leader of the House).
  • There is also a ‘Leader of the House’ in the Rajya Sabha who is a minister and a member of the Rajya Sabha and is nominated by the PM to function as such.
  • S/He exercises direct influence on the conduct of business.
  • The office of leader of the house is not mentioned in the Constitution but in the Rules of the House.

  
  

• Leader of the Opposition: The leader of the largest Opposition party having not less than one-tenth seats of the total strength of the House is recognised as the leader of the Opposition in a House.
  • S/He provides constructive criticism of the government policies and to provide an alternative government.
  • The leader of Opposition in both the Houses were accorded statutory recognition in 1977 and are entitled to the salary, allowances and other facilities equivalent to that of a cabinet minister.
  • The office of leader of the opposition is not mentioned in the Constitution but in the Parliamentary Statute.
• Whip: Every political party, whether ruling or opposition has its own whip in the Parliament.
  • S/He is appointed by the political party to serve as an assistant floor leader, charged with the responsibility of ensuring the attendance of his party members in large numbers and securing their support in favour of or against a particular issue.
  • He regulates and monitors their behaviour in the Parliament and the members are supposed to follow the directives given by the whip.
  • The office of ‘whip’ is mentioned neither in the Indian Constitution nor in the other two statues mentioned above. It is based on the conventions of the parliamentary government.

Sessions of Parliament

• Summoning:
  • Summoning is the process of calling all members of the Parliament to meet.
    • The summoning of Parliament is specified in Article 85 of the Constitution.
  • The President summons each House of the Parliament from time to time.
    • However, the maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months.
• Sessions:
  • India does not have a fixed parliamentary calendar. By convention, Parliament meets for three sessions in a year.
    • Budget Session: Longest session, starts towards the end of January, and concludes by the end of April.
    • Monsoon Session: Second session, usually begins in July and finishes in August.
    • Winter Session: Third session, held from November to December.
• Adjournment:
  • An adjournment suspends the work in a sitting for a specified time, which may be hours, days or weeks.
  • When the meeting is terminated without any definite time/date fixed for the next meeting, it is called Adjournment sine die.
  • The power of adjournment as well as adjournment sine die lies with the presiding officer (Speaker or Chairman) of the House.
• Prorogation:
  • Unlike adjournment, Prorogation terminates a sitting as well as the session of the House.
  • It is done by the President of India.
  • Prorogation is different from the dissolution (of Lok Sabha).
• Quorum:
  • Quorum refers to the minimum number of the members required to be present for conducting a meeting of the house.
  • The Constitution has fixed one-tenth strength as quorum for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• Joint Session of Parliament:
  • The Constitution of India, under Article 108, provides for the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, in order to break any deadlock between the two.
  • The joint sitting is called by the President and is presided over by the Lok Sabha Speaker.
    • In the speaker’s absence, the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides over the meeting.
    • In the absence of both, it is presided over by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• Lame Duck Session: It refers to the last session of the existing Lok Sabha, after a new Lok Sabha has been elected.
  • Those members of the existing Lok Sabha who could not get re-elected to the new Lok Sabha are called lame-ducks.

Devices of Parliamentary Proceedings

• Question Hour:
  • The first hour of every parliamentary sitting is termed as Question hour. It is mentioned in the Rules of Procedure of the House.
  • During this time, the members ask questions and the ministers usually give answers. The questions are of three types:
    • Starred questions: These are distinguished by an asterisk and require oral answers. Hence supplementary questions can follow.
    • Unstarred questions: It requires a written answer and hence, supplementary questions cannot follow.
    • Short notice questions: The matters of public importance and of urgent character are considered under this type of questions. These are asked by giving a notice of less than ten days and are answered orally.
• Zero Hour:
  • A Zero Hour is an Indian parliamentary innovation. It is not mentioned in the parliamentary rules book.
    • Under this, the Members of Parliament (MPs) can raise matters without any prior notice.
  • The zero hour starts immediately after the question hour and lasts until the agenda for the day (regular business of the House) is taken up.
    • In other words, the time gap between the question hour and the agenda is known as zero hour.
• Half-an-Hour Discussion:
  • It is meant for discussing a matter of sufficient public importance, which has been subjected to a lot of debate and the answer to which needs elucidation on a matter of fact.
  • The Speaker can allot three days in a week for such discussions. There is no formal motion or voting before the House.
• Short Duration Discussion:
  • It is also known as two-hour discussion as the time allotted for such a discussion should not exceed two hours.
  • The members of the Parliament can raise such discussions on a matter of urgent public importance.
  • The Speaker can allot two days in a week for such discussions. There is neither a formal motion before the house nor voting.
  • This device has been in existence since 1953.