Budget Session may be cut short; meetings by Speaker, V-P fail to end House deadlock

Budget Session may be cut short; meetings by Speaker, V-P fail to end House deadlock

Subject: Polity

Section: Legislature

Context: On Tuesday, for the seventh day in a row, proceedings in both the Houses were adjourned following chaotic scenes. Amid the disorder, the Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2023, was passed in the Lok Sabha. Some MPs said the government may guillotine the demands for grants and pass the Finance Bill without any discussion in Lok Sabha on Thursday

Parliament Session:

• The president from time to time summons each House of Parliament to meet. But, the maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months. In other words, the Parliament should meet at least twice a year.
• There are usually three sessions in a year,viz,
• the Budget Session (February to May)
• the Monsoon Session (July to September)
• the Winter Session (November to December)
• A session of Parliament is the period spanning between the first sitting of a House and its prorogation (or dissolution in the case of the Lok Sabha).
• During a session, the House meets every day to transact business. The period spanning between the prorogation of a House and its reassembly in a new session is called recess.

Adjournment motion

• It is introduced in the Parliament to draw attention of the House to a definite matter of urgent public importance, and needs the support of 50 members to be admitted.
• As it interrupts the normal business of the House, it is regarded as an extraordinary device. It involves an element of censure against the government and hence Rajya Sabha is not permitted to make use of this
• The discussion on an adjournment motion should last for not less than two hours and thirty minutes.
• The right to move a motion for an adjournment of the business of the House is subject to the following restrictions:

1. It should raise a matter which is definite, factual, urgent and of public importance;
2. It should not cover more than one matter;
3. It should be restricted to a specific matter of recent occurrence and should not be framed in general terms;
4. It should not raise a question of privilege;
5. It should not revive discussion on a matter that has been discussed in the same session;
6. It should not deal with any matter that is under adjudication by court; and
7. It should not raise any question that can be raised on a distinct motion.

Appropriation Bill and Guillotine

Concept:

• Under Article 114(3) of the Constitution, no amount can be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund without the enactment of such a law by Parliament.
• After the Demands for Grants are voted by the Lok Sabha, Parliament’s approval to the withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund of the amounts so voted and of the amount required to meet the expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund is sought through the Appropriation Bill.

Guillotine

• The Bill was passed after Speaker Om Birla put it through guillotine, a legislative mechanism to approve the fast-tracking of the passage of outstanding demands for grants without discussion.
• While guillotine literally is a large, weighted blade used for executing a condemned person, in legislative parlance, to ”guillotine” means to bunch together and fast-track the passage of financial business.
• It is a fairly common procedural exercise in Lok Sabha during the Budget Session.