Time allotted for Private Members’ business in Parliament on the decline

Analysis shows minimal time spent on Private Members Bills and Resolutions in Indian Parliament, hindering individual expression and legislation.

In the five-year tenure of the 17th Lok Sabha, only 9.08 hours were spent on Private Members Bills (PMB) and for the corresponding time in Rajya Sabha, 27.01 hours were spent, an analysis by PRS Legislative Research shared with The Hindu has shown. And in the two sessions in the 18th Lok Sabha, 0.15 hours were spent on private members bills and 0.62 hours in Rajya Sabha.

For the corresponding period, in the 17th Lok Sabha, the lower house spent 16.43 hours and the upper house spent 20.78 hours on the Private Members Resolution (PMR). And in the 18th Lok Sabha, only 1.98 hours were spent in the Lower House and 2.09 in the upper house. Even in one of its worst performances in the recently concluded winter session the Lok Sabha which only functioned for 52% of the allotted time, it sat for 62 hours. The Rajya Sabha functioned for 40% of its allotted time and sat for a total of a little over 43 hours. The time spent on private members’ business for the entire tenure of the Lok Sabha is a minuscule fraction of the total hours both houses sit in a single session.

Data | Parliament functioning registers a new low 

These two — the PMB and PMR — are the only instruments available for Parliamentarians’ individual expression without being bound by their political party’s diktat. They also serve as an important medium for political messaging. For example in 1966, after the sudden death of then PM Lal Bahadur Shashtri, the Congress chose Indira Gandhi to be the Prime Minister. H.V. Kamath, then Praja Socialist Party MP moved a PMB to amend the Constitution to only allow directly elected MPs to be eligible for the post of PM. Indira Gandhi was a member of the Rajya Sabha at the time.

Congress Rajya Sabha Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh said all round indifference is responsible for decline of this Parliamentary tool. “Nobody takes it seriously. Very often I have found even the members’ whose legislations have been listed in the schedule do not show up.” One of the reasons, he said, is that it has been cast aside for a Friday afternoon when the members are in a hurry to return to their constituencies for the weekend. He had proposed that for Private Members Business to survive, it should be scheduled midweek on Wednesday.

With a narrowing window available for Private Members Business, it takes years for legislation moved by members to come for discussion. Lok Sabha MP and senior Leader Manish Tewari said, three of his bills, including one to amend the anti-defection law, to free the Parliamentarians from respective party positions in all instances other than no-confidence motions, adjournment motions, financial bills that impact the stability of government have been pending for over 15-years “I had moved these bills in the 15th Lok Sabha and they have not come up for discussion since then. Curtailing the private members’ bill is equal to strangling the voice of Parliamentarians,” Mr. Tewari said.

CPI (M) MP John Brittas said, that the Private Members Bill has been designed to be unaffected by party or the government. “The makers of the Indian constitution provided a sacrosanct space for the Parliamentarians to express themselves freely. This should be protected. Instead, at the slightest provocation, this is scrapped,” he said.