18th Lok Sabha functioned for 123% of scheduled time; Sixth year of functioning without a Deputy Speaker
The 18th Lok Sabha held its first two sessions between June and August 2024. These two sessions lasted for a total of 22 days in Lok Sabha and 20 days in Rajya Sabha. Both Houses adjourned a day ahead of schedule. Across both sessions, Lok Sabha functioned for 123% of its scheduled time and Rajya Sabha for 110%. Lok Sabha met for more than 11 hours on two sitting days. On these days, the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, and the Budget were discussed.
Om Birla was re-elected as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. This is the sixth time that a Speaker has been reelected for a second term, the last time being in 1999.
The post of the Deputy Speaker remained vacant for the entire duration of the 17th Lok Sabha. The Deputy Speaker has not been elected in the 18th Lok Sabha so far.
Eleven Bills were introduced, which include the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, and the Oilfields Regulation and Development (Amendment) Bill, 2024. The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024 was passed by Lok Sabha. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was introduced after a two-hour discussion with 20 MPs participating. The Bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee for detailed scrutiny.
General Budget discussion lasted for more than 27 hours in Lok Sabha
The time spent on the general discussion on the Budget has declined over the years. In this debate, MPs discuss the Budget provisions and overall government finances.
In this session, more than 27 hours were spent on the general discussion in Lok Sabha. This is significantly higher than in recent years. This year, the central government’s Budget was discussed together with the Budget for Jammu and Kashmir. Prior to 2019, Jammu and Kashmir’s Budget was discussed in the State Legislative Assembly.
Budgets of four ministries discussed in detail; 89% of budget passed without discussion
The General Budget discussion is followed by a discussion on the expenditure of various Ministries (called Demands for Grants) in Lok Sabha. This discussion lasted for more than 30 hours in 2024, covering four Ministries: Railways, Health, Education, and Animal Husbandry. Rajya Sabha discusses the working of Ministries. Three Ministries, Housing and Urban Affairs, Agriculture, and New and Renewable Energy were discussed for a total of 16 hours.
In the last 20 years, the budgets of the Health and Education Ministry have been discussed four times each in Lok Sabha. The Ministry of Home Affairs has been discussed the most, eight times in Lok Sabha. In 2018-19 and 2023- 24, Ministry-wise expenditure was not discussed. Barring these two years, the Railways Ministry has been discussed in Parliament every year since 2017-18 onwards (when the Railways budget was merged with the Union Budget).
Over the last 10 years, more than two-thirds (67%) of the Budget has been guillotined, i.e., passed without discussion each year.
Motion of thanks discussed for 40 hours; Two short duration discussions held
At the beginning of each Lok Sabha, and on the first sitting in each calendar year, the President addresses a joint sitting of both Houses. This address provides the policy agenda of the government. The address is followed by a discussion in both Houses, called the Motion of Thanks on the Address by the President. This discussion was held for 19 hours in Lok Sabha, and 21 hours in Rajya Sabha.
One short-duration discussion was held in Lok Sabha on India’s preparedness for the Paris Olympics, and one in Rajya Sabha on the death of students in a coaching institute in Delhi.
In Lok Sabha, the Minister of Home Affairs’ attention was called to the loss of life and property due to floods and landslides in different parts of the country. In Rajya Sabha, attention was called to the situation in Wayanad, Kerala following a devastating landslide. These are known as Calling Attention motions.
Question Hour functioned for almost 100% of the scheduled time
As on August 8, Question Hour functioned for 97% of scheduled time in Lok Sabha, and 99% of scheduled time in Rajya Sabha.
Ministers gave oral responses to 31% of questions on the floor of the House. When a Minister answers a question in the House, MPs are allowed to ask follow-up questions, called supplementaries.
Supplementary questions were asked to 81% of questions in Lok Sabha and 92% of questions in Rajya Sabha.
Private Members’ resolutions discussed in both Houses
Private Members’ Business refers to Bills and resolutions moved by MPs who are not Ministers.
Private Members’ Bills were introduced in both Houses. One Bill, which sought to amend Article 16 of the Constitution, was discussed for about 25 minutes in Rajya Sabha. The motion to introduce another Bill, which sought to amend the powers of the Governor, was defeated.
Two Private Members’ Resolutions were discussed. In Lok Sabha, a resolution on the need to regulate airfares was discussed. In Rajya Sabha, a resolution to repeal the NEET examination, and to move ‘education’ from the Concurrent List to the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution was discussed.
82% of first-term MPs participated in debates
In Lok Sabha, MPs from Tamil Nadu participated the most in debates, followed by MPs from Kerala and Rajasthan. MPs from Shiv Sena asked the most questions on average, followed by MPs from the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Telugu Desam Party. This only accounts for states and parties with at least 10 MPs.
82% of first-term MPs participated in debates. 61% of first-term MPs participated in the Budget discussions. The private member resolution discussed in Lok Sabha was moved by a first-term MP.
42% MPs took oath in Hindi; English, Marathi, and Tamil most popular other languages
42% of MPs took oath in Hindi, and 7% in English. 4% of MPs took oath in Sanskrit.
About 50% of Lok Sabha MPs took oath in other languages. Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, and Telugu were the most popular such languages (corresponding to the local languages of the states with most MPs).
Sources: Bulletins, Resumes, and websites of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha; Statistical Handbook 2023, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; PRS.
This article first appeared on PRS Legislative Research.
