Politicians, analysts and commentators went into a tizzy on Thursday after the government said a special session of Parliament will be held from September 18 to 22, with speculation ranging from a Uniform Civil Code legislation to a big-bang celebration of India’s successful G20 presidency, perhaps in the new Parliament building.
The government is yet to disclose the agenda for the session. There will be five sittings of the special session, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday in a statement on social media platform X.
“Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to have fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” he added.
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The agenda will be finalised once the G-20 Leaders Summit that is happening between September 8 and September 10 ends, government officials familiar with the matter said.
“The government has the prerogative of calling the session. Since the government has decided to call a special session, it has made a formal announcement today. The agenda will also be subsequently announced,” one of the officials added.
The decision to convene a session of Parliament rests with the government and is taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs with a presidential notification follows the cabinet committee’s decisions.
{{/usCountry}}The decision to convene a session of Parliament rests with the government and is taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs with a presidential notification follows the cabinet committee’s decisions.
{{/usCountry}}The official cited above declined to comment on whether any urgent bills could be introduced for passage during the special session.
A senior official of the parliamentary affairs ministry said the agenda of the special session will be finalised next week and could include “a discussion on a key issue and a few bills”
A National Democratic Alliance leader ruled out the possibility of a Uniform Civil Code bill being introduced in the special session.
“There is no plan whatsoever to bring a UCC bill now,” he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, a special session of Rajya Sabha was held in February 1977 for two days for the extension of the President’s Rule in Tamil Nadu and Nagaland under the second proviso to article 356(4). Another two-day special session (158th Session) was held June, 3 in 1991 for approval of the President’s Rule in Haryana, under the proviso to article 356(3). As per the Rajya Sabha records, on both these occasions the Upper House met when the Lok Sabha was under dissolution.
During the UPA era, a special session of Lok Sabha was called in July 2008 for a trust vote after the Left parties withdrew support from the Manmohan Singh government.
Past governments have called many special sittings of the Houses to commemorate the Constitution Day, Quit India Movement and other special occasions.
In 2017, the then Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral in a private member Bill suggested the introduction of special session in addition to the existing three sessions to compensate for the hours unutilised due to disruptions.