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Parliament sees growing trend of bills introduced, passed in same session: PRS data
Parliament sees growing trend of bills introduced, passed in same session: PRS data
New Delhi, More than half of the bills introduced in the 18th Lok Sabha so far have been passed by both Houses in the session of their introduction, with the trend accelerating sharply over the past year, an analysis of data from PRS Legislative Research shows.
Of the 64 bills introduced since this Lok Sabha was constituted, 34 or 53 per cent were passed by both Houses in the session in which they were introduced, according to an analysis of PRS' session-wise data.
The corresponding proportion was 33 per cent during the 16th Lok Sabha, when 63 of the 189 bills introduced were passed in the session of their introduction. It nearly doubled to about 62 per cent during the 17th Lok Sabha, when 117 of the 190 bills introduced were passed in the same session, an analysis of PRS data shows.
The 18th Lok Sabha, however, began slowly on this count, according to records maintained by PRS, an independent, not-for-profit group that researches and tracks the functioning of Parliament and state legislatures.
In the Budget Session of 2026, five of the 10 bills introduced completed passage through both Houses in the same session.
The trend was most pronounced in the Monsoon Session, which ended on August 13. Eleven of the 12 bills introduced were passed before the session ended.
The only one that remained pending was the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026.
The government's original legislative agenda had listed five new bills for introduction and passage and two pending bills for consideration and passage. But six of the 11 bills eventually passed by Parliament had not been listed for introduction in the original agenda.
Neither of the two pending bills listed on the government's agenda for consideration and passage - the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, and the Foreign Contribution Amendment Bill, 2026 - was passed.
The parliamentary committee examining the VBSA Bill has not yet presented its report, while the FCRA Amendment Bill was referred to a Joint Committee of the Parliament amid Opposition demands for its withdrawal.
PRS has in the past pointed out that a short gap between introduction and passage gives MPs less time to examine proposed legislation and limits opportunities for consultations with stakeholders, a concern that the time spent discussing several Bills during the Monsoon Session attests.
As many as nine bills were cleared without any MP, other than the minister piloting them, speaking, according to PRS. Seven of the 11 Bills were passed in five minutes or less.
None of the 11 bills introduced in the Budget Session of 2024 was passed by both Houses during that session. The four bills introduced in the following Winter Session also remained pending at the end of the session.
The only bill to complete passage through Parliament in Winter Session 2024 was the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, which had been introduced in the previous Budget Session.
The pattern changed from 2025.
Of the five bills introduced in the Budget Session of 2025, three were passed during the same session. In the Monsoon Session of 2025, eight of the 13 bills introduced were passed within the session. The other five were referred to parliamentary committees.
The proportion rose further in the Winter Session of 2025, when seven of the nine bills introduced were passed during the session, while the remaining two were referred to committees.
This year's Monsoon Session, held from July 20 to August 13, had 19 sittings. Lok Sabha functioned for only 15 per cent of its scheduled time, while Rajya Sabha worked for 33 per cent, amid repeated disruptions over the NEET-UG paper leak, police action against protesting students at Jantar Mantar and the alleged theft of donations from the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Question Hour functioned for just one per cent of its scheduled time in Lok Sabha and 12 per cent in Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, Question Hour was held for only nine minutes during the entire session, with two of the 380 listed questions answered orally, according to PRS.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
