let us find out what do these sessions of parliament actually mean for the country. To start with the obvious, around 790 members of the supreme legislative body in India meet thrice a year. The period during which the parliamentarians convene and conduct the business of each House is referred to as session. Every year, the Parliament of India conducts three sessions – Budget, Monsoon and Winter.
Budget Session
Budget session, which is conducted from February to May, is considered highly crucial for the matters it deals with. Much importance is attached to this session of the Parliament as government tries to pass as many bills as possible to take forward its reform agenda. The budget session opens with the presentation of the Railway Budget. While the rail budget is presented sometime in the third week of February, the General Budget is presented on the last working day of February. The MPs get an opportunity to discuss budgetary provisions and proposals pertaining to taxation.
It is often seen that the budget session is split into two periods with a gap of one month in between. The standing committees related to various ministries utilise the intervening period to discuss and consider the Demands for Grants made by the ministries. The timeframe between the prorogation of the Parliament and its reassembly is known as recess.
Monsoon Session
After a brief hiatus of around two months, both the Houses of the Parliament resume business in July and continue till September. Unlike the preceding session, the monsoon session is dedicated largely to discussions on matters of public interest. It is during the monsoon session that the members of the Parliament, including the ministers, can bring forward the legislative proposals in the form of a Bill.
The government can move a resolution or a motion to get approval or opinion of the House on policy-related issues and matters of grave concern. Similarly, the MPs can also move a resolution in order to draw the attention of the House on specific problems and initiate discussions on matters of urgent public importance.
Winter Session
It is the shortest session that spans over a period of one month generally between mid-November and mid-December. It takes up the issues that could not be deliberated upon and makes up for the lack of legislative business during the second session of the Parliament. The MPs not only debate on administrative policies on the floors of the Parliament, but also make sure that the government gets the drift and becomes aware of its lapses.
All the three sessions of the Parliament are uniform in their purpose and the functions they are expected to perform. For example, the proposal for amending a certain Act within the Constitution of India can be initiated in any of the three sessions and either House of the Parliament.
The sessions of Parliament are convened at the discretion of the President. However, there should not be a gap of more than six months between two sessions. The President has the power to summon or prorogue either or both Houses of Parliament. The power of adjournment belongs to the respective presiding officers. Adjournment of a house does not terminate the session of the house. It merely postpones the proceedings of the house to a future date. But prorogation brings an end to a session of the house. The parliament ordinarily meets in three sessions in a year. These are the Budget Session (Febuary-May) , Monsoon session (July-August) and Winter session(Nov-December).
Functions and Powers of the Parliament
(1) Providing the cabinet
(2) Control of the cabinet
(3) Criticism of the cabinet and of the individual ministers
(4) An organ of information
(5) Legislation
(6) Financial control
(7) According to Art368 Parliament can amend the Constitution of India.
(8) Electoral-Parliament participates in the election of the President and Vice President of India
(9) Power of removing functionaries like the President and Vice- President and judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
Joint sessions of Parliament
The President can call joint sessions of the two Houses if a bill passed by one House is rejected by the other House or if the amendments proposed to a bill by one House are not acceptable to the other House, does not take any action on a bill remitted to it for six months. Decision is taken by a majority of the total members present. The deadlock over a bill in a joint sitting is resolved by present and voting. Since the Lok Sabha has a larger membership in a joint sitting generally the will of the Lok Sabha prevails. After the passage of the bill in a joint sitting it is presented to the President for his assent. But no joint sitting can be summoned to resolve a deadlock in case of a Money bill or a Constitutional Amendment bill.
Legislative procedure- The primary function of Parliament is law making. Art 107 to 122 of the Constitution deal with the legislative procedure with reference to the passing of the bills in the Parliament. A Bills may be classified under four heads viz., Ordinary, Money, Financial and Constitutional Amendment bills. Money and financial bills cannot be introduced in the Rajya Sabha. The other bills can be introduced in either house of the Parliament. Bills are of two types viz., Government and private members' bills. Money, financial and an ordinary bill under Article 3 can be introduced only on the recommendation of the President. It means they cannot be introduced as Private Members bills. The legislative procedure adopted for passing Government and Private members' bills is the same.
The different stages in the legislative procedure in the Parliament-
(a) Introduction of the Bill. The first stage of legislation is the introduction of a Bill. After the Bill has been introduced in the house it is published in the Gazette of India. The introduction of the bill and its publication in the Gazette constitutes the First reading of the Bill.
(b) Second reading of the Bill- At this stage the bill is discussed in thoroughness. There are different courses of action open at the second stage; (1) the bill may be taken into consideration at once; (2) the Bill may be referred to a Select committee or a Joint committee of the House (3) the bill may be circulated for the purpose of eliciting public opinion on it.
(c) Third reading of the Bill. This is the final reading which is more or less a formal affair.
After the bill has been accepted by the House it is deemed to have been passed by the House. It is then transmitted to the other House where it has to pass through the same process. The other House has four alternatives before it. These are:
(1) It may pass the bill with no amendment . In that case the bill will be deemed to have been passed by both houses.
(2) It may pass the bill with amendments. In this case, the bill will be returned to the originating House. If the House which originated the bill accepts the bill as amended by the other House, it will be deemed to have been passed by both Houses. However if the originating house does not agree to the amendments made by the other House and if there is final disagreement as to the amendments between the two Houses the President may summon a joint sitting of the two Houses to resolve the deadlock
(3) It may reject the bill altogether. Then the President may under Art 108 summon a joint sitting to resolve the deadlock;
(4) It may take no action on the Bill by keeping it lying on its table. In such a case if more than six months elapse from the date of reception of the bill, then it is deemed that there this a deadlock between the two Houses and the President may summon a joint sitting of the Parliament.
President's Assent.- After the bill has passed through both the Houses or through a joint sitting of the Parliament or it is ratified by not less than half of the state legislatures as the case may be, it is presented to the President for his assent. If it is a Money Bill or a Constitutional Amendment bill , he has to give his assent to the bill. But in case of a bill other than these two, the President may return the bill for the reconsideration of the Parliament with his recommendation. If the Bill is passed by both the Houses again, with or without amendment as recommended by the President , it is sent to the President for the second time. At this stage the President cannot withhold his assent . The bill after receiving the assent of the President becomes an Act.
Special procedure with respect to Money Bill
If any question arises whether a bill is a money bill or not, the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is final. His decision in this respect cannot be questioned in a court of law. A money bill cannot be introduced in the Rajya Sabha. It cannot be introduced without the recommendation of the President. After it is passed by the Lok Sabha it is transmitted to the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha cannot reject or amend a money bill by virtue of its powers. It has only a recommendatory role to play in the passing of a Money bill. After receiving a money bill from the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha within a period of 14 days must return the bill to the Lok Sabha with or without the recommendations. After the Money Bill is passed by the Parliament it is presented to the President for his assent . The President cannot send back a money bill to the reconsideration of the Parliament; he shall give his assent.
Special procedure with respect to Financial bill
A financial bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, that too on the recommendations of the President. However the Rajya Sabha has equal powers to reject or amend it. The President may also send a financial bill for the reconsideration of the Parliament once.
Parliament' s control over the financial system
The financial system consists of two branches, viz., revenue and expenditure. Article 265 states that no tax can be levied or collected without the sanction of the Parliament . All the revenue and loans raised by the authority of law are paid into the Consolidated Fund of India. Under Article 266 no money can be withdrawn or spent or appropriated from the Consolidated Fund of India without the sanction of the Parliament. The Parliament thus controls the revenue expenditure and appropriation of government funds.
The Budget
The budget is the annual financial statement of the government . It is a government bill and is classified as a Money Bill. It is presented to the Lok Sabha upon the recommendation of the President The budget is a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditures of the government of India for the following financial year. All the expenditures approved through various demands for grants and expenses charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, are then presented in the form of a single bill called the Appropriation Bill. The proposals for taxation to raise revenue are presented in the form of 'Financial Bill'
Consolidated Fund of India- It is a fund to which all the revenue, loans raised and income of the Government of India are deposited.
Charged expenditures are expenditures that do not require the approval of the Parliament to be spent out of the Consolidated Fund of India.
Contingency Fund of India- This fund was created in 1950 by an act of Parliament on the basis of powers provided under Art 267. It has a limit of 50 cores. It is placed at the disposal of the President to meet unforeseen expenditures where the Parliament's approval cannot be obtained owing to time factor.
Question hour. Normally the first hour of the business of a house every day is devoted to questions and is called question hour.
Adjournment Motions An adjournment motion is an extra- ordinary procedure which if admitted leads to setting aside the normal business of the house for discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance.
Call- attention motion- A member of Parliament may with prior permission of the Speaker, call the attention of a minister to any matter of urgent public importance and the minister may make a brief statement or ask for time to make a statement at a later hour or date.
No - confidence motion- A motion moved by a member to express lack of confidence in the Government for any reason. The motion, if allowed is debated upon. At the conclusion of such a debate, a vote of confidence is sought by the government and it fails to get the required majority of votes, it has to resign.
SEVENTH SESSION - SIXTEENTH LOK SABHA
(February - May, 2016)
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LONGTERMINVESTORSRESEARCH" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to longterminvestorsresearch+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/longterminvestorsresearch.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment