The winter session of Parliament was held from November 29, 2021 to December 22, 2021. Parliament adjourned one day ahead of schedule, having sat for 18 days. On the first day, 12 MPs were suspended from Rajya Sabha for not observing parliamentary conduct on the last day of Monsoon Session 2021. On the penultimate day of the session, another Rajya Sabha MP was suspended on the grounds of disorderly conduct.
During this session, 12 Bills were introduced (excluding Appropriation Bills). Ten Bills were passed, of which six had been introduced in this session. These include the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, and the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Bills pending from previous sessions that were passed in this session include the Dam Safety Bill, 2019, and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019.
Four Bills were referred to Committees including the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Mediation Bill, 2021. In the current Lok Sabha, only 13% of the Bills have been referred to Committees. This is much lower than the last three Lok Sabhas.
During this session, in Lok Sabha, Question Hour functioned for 66% of the scheduled time and 26% questions were answered orally. On two days, no questions were answered orally in Lok Sabha.
In Rajya Sabha, Question Hour functioned for 38% of the scheduled time and 21% questions were answered orally. On eight days, no questions were answered orally in Rajya Sabha.
More than 19 hours in Lok Sabha and one hour in Rajya Sabha were spent on non-legislative debates during this session. The topics discussed include climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Parliament spent 16% of its sitting time on such discussions.
During the session, discussion on COVID-19 was conducted twice. Lok Sabha discussed management of the pandemic, and Rajya Sabha discussed the new variant Omicron. Across both Houses, there have been nine discussions on COVID-19 since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. Note that a discussion on price rise was listed but not conducted in either House.
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