Why in News ?

Lok Sabha adjourned sine die and one of the shortest sessions in India’s parliamentary history

• It was packed with 25 Bills
• The extraordinary situation of Lok Sabha MPs sitting in both Houses of Parliament to enforce COVID-19 social distancing rules.
• The session was shortened by eight days.

About the recent session

• Lok Sabha productivity clocked at 167% with 25 Bills passed
• 2,300 unstarred questions answered
• 68% of the sittings dealing with legislative work
• 370 Zero Hour mentions.

Parliament Sessions

There are usually three sessions in a year

1. Budget Session (February to May)
2. Monsoon Session (July to September)
3. Winter Session (November to December)

Summoning : The Parliament should meet at least twice a year. the maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months.

Adjournment : An adjournment ends a meeting. It could be done using a motion to adjourn. An adjournment suspends the work in a sitting for a specified time. Power vested with presiding officer of the house.

A session of Parliament : Consists of many meetings of two sittings a morning sitting from 11 am to 1 pm and post-lunch sitting from 2 pm to 6 pm.

A sitting of Parliament can be terminated by adjournment or adjournment sine die or prorogation or dissolution
(in the case of the Lok Sabha).

• Adjournment Sine Die : Adjournment sine die means terminating a sitting of Parliament for an indefinite period.
  • The power of adjournment as well as adjournment sine die lies with the presiding officer of
    the House.
• Prorogation : The presiding officer (Speaker or Chairman) declares the House adjourned sine die, when the
  business of a session is completed and the President issues a notification for prorogation of the session.
• Dissolution : A dissolution ends the very life of the existing House, and a new House is constituted after general elections are held. 
  • Rajya Sabha is not subject to dissolution.
    1. Automatic dissolution, that is, on the expiry of its tenure of five years.
    2. Whenever the President decides to dissolve the House.

Source : The Hindu

Topic

GS II : Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these

Current Affairs Compilation : 24 September 2020