Dismal performance of state Assemblies in holding sittings throughout year

The outgoing Haryana Assembly met for 72 days over five years, or 14.4 days a year on average. It was one of the poorest performances among India’s 30 legislative assemblies. In the period 2017 to 2023, only Tripura’s legislative Assembly, which averaged 10 sittings a year during the span, Uttarakhand and Sikkim, each with 12 sittings a year, and Punjab, 13 sittings a year, fared worse.
 

Over the last several years, state legislatures in India have been meeting for fewer days, and passing Bills and budgets with less scrutiny, says PRS Legislative Research, a Delhi-based think tank, in its report, ‘Annual Review of State Laws, 2023’.

The Constitution does not prescribe the number of sitting days for legislatures. Article 124 only specifies that the gap between two sittings of Parliament or state legislatures should not be more than six months.

 

 Shifting goals
 

The idea of a fixed calendar of sittings or a minimum number of sittings was explored by the Lok Sabha’s General Purposes Committee in 1955. Four decades later, in its report submitted in March 2002, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), recommended measures to improve the efficiency of legislatures.
 

The Commission said state legislatures with fewer than 70 members should meet for at least 50 days in a year, and others for at least 90 days. It suggested that the Rajya Sabha sit for a minimum of 100 days and the Lok Sabha for 120 days a year.

Some of the states, such as Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, have mandated a minimum number of sitting days for their legislatures. This has been done through the Rules of Procedure of their Assemblies, or through legislation. These limits vary from 35 days in Himachal Pradesh to 90 days in Uttar Pradesh.

 

But none of these states have met the target since 2016, the year from which PRS Legislative Research has collected data for these states. For example, Himachal Pradesh’s assembly on average sat for 28 days from 2017 to 23 against its prescribed 35 days.
 

Karnataka legislature met for 35 days a year instead of its mandated 60 days. Odisha’s assembly averaged 40 days annually against 60 days, Punjab for a meagre 13 days against its stipulated 40 days, Rajasthan for 29 days instead of 60 days, and UP for 19 days against 90.

 

 Seeking to amend
 

Over the years, Members of Parliament have introduced private member’s bills seeking amendments to Articles 85 and 174 to fix minimum number of sittings for the two Houses of Parliament and legislative assemblies.
 

In 2009, Samajwadi Party’s RS member Mahendra Mohan moved a bill that sought constitution amendments to prescribe that state assemblies sit for a minimum of 60 days. In 2019, Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha parliamentary party leader Derek O’Brien’s bill said the two Houses of Parliament should sit for a minimum of 100 days.
 

At the expiry of the 17th Lok Sabha (2019-2024), which sat for 274 days, the worst among all the Lok Sabhas that lasted their full terms, O’Brien again flagged the dire need for a Constitution amendment to ensure Parliament had a fixed calendar and a prescribed number of sittings.
 

More recently, in December 2022, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s RS member Manoj Jha moved a Bill that envisaged that Parliament should sit for 120 days a year over four sessions, including a 15-day session that will only debate the two most urgent matters of public importance. None of these Bills, whether Mohan’s in 2009, O'Brien's in 2019, or Jha’s in 2022, found support from the respective governments at the Centre.

 

 In defence mode
 

Former Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shumsher K Sheriff attributes the failure of state legislative assemblies to sit for a specific number of days on the lack of political will, increasing fragmentation among political parties that has made reaching general consensus on certain issues difficult, and below par homework on the bills that are introduced.
 

“State governments are in defence mode, and do just enough by convening sessions to keep afloat constitutionally. They do not want debate and discussions since the legislation has not been thought through, and debate would expose this lack of homework,” Sheriff, a 1977-batch IAS officer, says. State governments use the “sledgehammer approach” to push Bills, mostly without scrutiny, and send it for the Governor’s assent.
 

Data bears out how the process of law making in states is rushed. In 2023, state legislatures passed more than 500 Bills, and scrutinised their state budgets, cumulatively worth about Rs 53 trillion.

As the PRS report stated, these bills were “often passed quickly with very little debate”, which “could have an adverse impact on the quality of legislation, may get challenged in courts, require frequent changes” or need to be replaced altogether. In 2023, 44 per cent of all the Bills passed, were passed on the day they were introduced in the Assembly or the very next day. Of the more than 500 Bills introduced in 2023, 23 were referred to committees for further scrutiny.
 

According to Sheriff, the law making process at the Centre and in states suffers from another lacuna – the delay in framing of rules, which on occasions is known to take years.
 

“The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha need to take the lead in amending parliamentary rules of procedures to mandate introduction of a proposed legislation only when it is accompanied by subordinate legislation,” he says. Such a rule would entail that legislation is proposed only after sufficient ground work.
 

But for any amendments, either to the constitution to specify minimum number of sittings of the two Houses of Parliament and state legislatures and councils, or for changes in rules of procedure, public debate and pressure could be the way forward.



HIGH EFFICIENCY

• In 2023, state assemblies met for 22 days on average, but managed to pass more than 500 Bills
   
• They also scrutinised their state budgets, cumulatively worth about Rs 53 trillion
   
• 62% of sittings were held during the Budget session
   
• All 28 states and 2 UTs (Delhi and Puducherry) have legislatures (J&K will have one after the ongoing polls)
   
• Six states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh) also have legislative councils
   
• Highest was Maharashtra with 41 days, followed by West Bengal (40), and Karnataka (39)
   
• 13 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Telangana, met for less than 20 days
   
• Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Uttarakh and met for less than 10 days
   
• Kerala, which met for 61 days in 2021 and 41 days in 2022, had 29 sitting days in 2023
   
• In 2023, the six states with legislative councils met for 26 days on average (council sessions usually coincide with Assembly sessions)