Delay in prorogation of Parliament leading to suspicion: Ramesh

Why in the News

The Monsoon Session of Parliament has not been prorogued 17 days after both Houses were adjourned sine die, so the session remains technically alive. The consequence is that the government can reconvene Parliament without issuing a fresh presidential summons, and speculation has followed about a Special Session to revive the Delimitation Bill. The Congress has formally objected, calling the delay mystifying and saying it suggests mischief. The tension is that a step treated as a formality decides who controls the timing of the next sitting, and that control currently rests entirely with the executive.

What is prorogation?

1. Definition: Prorogation formally terminates a session of Parliament, as distinct from an adjournment, which only ends a sitting.
2. Who exercises it: It is done by the President, acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers, and a fresh session after it requires a fresh summons.
3. Adjournment sine die is not the same thing: Adjournment sine die ends the sittings of a session without fixing a date to reassemble, and the presiding officer may still call the House back until prorogation is notified.
4. Effect on business: Pending Bills do not lapse on prorogation. Pending notices, motions and questions before the House do lapse.

What has actually happened with the Monsoon Session?

1. The sittings ended in mid August: Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned sine die on 13 August, bringing the Monsoon Session to a close in practical terms.
2. The session was never formally ended: Prorogation has not been notified 17 days after the last meeting of the House.
3. The gap has a functional value: Keeping the session alive allows the government to reconvene Parliament without a fresh presidential summons.
4. A specific legislative purpose is suspected: The delay has generated speculation about a Special Session to revive the Delimitation Bill.

What is the Opposition objecting to?

1. The objection is to the silence, not the delay alone: The Congress communications chief said the continued delay leads to suspicions that mischief is afoot.
2. The numbers argument is being made publicly: The party’s position is that the Union Home Minister does not command the two thirds majority the legislation would need, and is engaging in bluff.
3. The objection was raised at the highest level: The Congress president wrote to the Prime Minister restating the party’s position on delimitation and on the expansion of the Lok Sabha.

What are the Congress’s linked demands?

1. A freeze on Lok Sabha strength: The party has asked that the existing strength of the Lower House be frozen at 543 seats for the next 15 years.
2. Implementation of women’s reservation: It has sought implementation of the legislation reserving a third of the seats for women Members of Parliament in time for the 2029 Lok Sabha election.

Challenges in the exercise of the prorogation and summoning power

1. The Constitution fixes no minimum number of sitting days: Article 85 requires only that six months not elapse between two sessions, which sets a floor on gaps and none on work. Eg. The Lok Sabha has in several recent years sat for fewer than 70 days against the roughly 130 days it averaged in the 1950s. Fix. Enact a fixed parliamentary calendar prescribing a minimum number of annual sitting days, as the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution recommended.
2. Summoning is effectively an executive decision: The President acts on ministerial advice, so the government decides when the legislature that scrutinises it will meet. Eg. Legislatures in several States have met for single day sessions to satisfy the six month requirement. Fix. Give a fixed proportion of members the power to requisition a sitting, as several parliamentary systems provide.
3. Long inter session gaps enable government by ordinance: Where the House is not in session, the executive can legislate through ordinances under Article 123 and seek approval later. Eg. Ordinances have been repromulgated across successive gaps, a practice the Supreme Court criticised in Krishna Kumar Singh vs State of Bihar (2017). Fix. Require an ordinance to be laid with a written statement of the immediate necessity that justified bypassing the House.
4. Deferred prorogation leaves members in an undefined status: With the session alive but not sitting, notices and motions neither lapse nor come up for disposal. Eg. Questions and motions admitted for a session that is neither prorogued nor reconvened simply remain pending without a listing date. Fix. Provide by rule that prorogation follows adjournment sine die within a fixed number of days unless the House is recalled.

Conclusion

The dispute is not about whether the government may keep a session alive, since the power plainly permits it, but about whether a power designed as a formal closing step can be held open to preserve an option over legislation. What to watch is whether a Special Session is convened before prorogation is notified, since that would confirm the delay was a legislative strategy rather than an administrative lapse.

Back2Basics

1. Definition: Delimitation is the redrawing of the boundaries and the reallocation of the number of seats of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies to reflect changes in population.
2. Constitutional basis: Article 82 requires readjustment after every census, on principles Parliament determines by law.
3. Machinery: A Delimitation Commission is constituted under a Delimitation Act, and its orders cannot be questioned in any court.
4. The current freeze: The 84th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2001 froze the number of Lok Sabha seats allocated to each State on the 1971 census figures until the first census taken after 2026.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2024] With reference to the Parliament of India, consider the following statements: 1. Prorogation of a House by the President of India does not require the advice of the Council of Ministers. 2. Prorogation of a House is generally done after the House is adjourned sine die, but there is no bar to the President of India proroguing the House which is in session. 3. Dissolution of the Lok Sabha is done by the President of India who, save in exceptional circumstances, does so on the advice of the Council of Ministers. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 1 and 2 (c) 2 and 3* (d) 3 only ANSWER: (c)”