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Covid-19 shadow on Parliament: Here’s a look at history of winter sessions
Parliament normally meets thrice a year for the budget, monsoon, and winter sessions. The winter session usually begins in late November and ends in December
Parliament normally meets thrice a year for the budget, monsoon, and winter sessions. This year, however, the surge in Covid-19 cases in the national capital has cast a shadow on the winter session, which usually begins in late November and ends in December.
Between 1952 and 2019, 65 winter sessions of Rajya Sabha have been held. Eight of these sessions commenced in December. Four winter sessions started in the first week of December in 1993, 2003, 2004, and 2013.
Two sessions commenced in the second week of December in 1994 and 2008. The 244th winter session in 2016 started in the 3rd week while the 156th session in 1990 in the 4th week of December.
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As per information collated by the Rajya Sabha secretariat, two winter sessions that started in December continued into the next year. The 41st winter session was held in two parts. The first part was held from November 18 to December 12, 1962. The second part continued from January 21 to January 25, 1963.
The first part of the winter session in 2003 was held from December 2 to December 23. The second part of this session began on January 30 and ended on February 5, 2004.
The winter sessions began thrice in October. As many as 54 winter sessions, which account for 83% of the total such sittings, commenced in November.
The number of sittings of all the 65 winter sessions adds up to 1,389 with an average duration of 21.36 sittings.
The shortest session of seven sittings was the 152nd session in 1989. The longest session of 32 sittings was the 86th session in 1973. Of the 65 winter sessions, 46 had sittings ranging from 20 to 29.
