Why Are Private Member Bills Not Being Discussed In The Parliament?

A private member bill is a bill introduced by an MP on issues they want to discuss. With the erratic functioning of the parliament over the years, it has become extremely difficult for MPs to introduce and discuss their bills.

What More Can We Expect In The Upcoming Budget Session Of 2022?

In the current Budget Session, the Lower House should appoint its Deputy Speaker because, by convention, the Chairperson of the Private Members’ Committee is the Deputy Speaker of the House. Till now, the 17th Lok Sabha has not got the Deputy Speaker, which makes it highest in terms of the number of days wherein the post of the Deputy Speaker remained vacant.

The Budget Session of 2022 has already commenced so let’s hope that we have a new Deputy Speaker appointed in the Lok Sabha and a newly constituted Private Members’ Committee which would be able to address the issues revolving around PMBs (Private Member Bills).

Introduction

India is a Parliamentary Democracy and we as a nation claim to follow democratic ethos and values. Parliament is the highest law-making body in the country, which provides a platform for policymakers to debate, discuss and make laws.

A prerequisite of any law is a formal draft, which is known as a bill. When MPs in their individual capacity introduce a bill in the Parliament, it is formally known as PMBs. The procedure for introduction, consideration and passing is almost the same in comparison to Government Bills.

Nevertheless, the question arises why there was a need to give powers to MPs to draft and introduce their own Bill. Well, there might not be a written document that shows the intent of creating the system of PMBs, but the answer lies in the fact that Parliament not only means Government per se, but opposition also represents the Parliament.

This simply means there is an open door left in the hands of opposition MPs to push in some of the important issues in the form of PMBs, which itself can play an important role as it would be noticed by the Government. They might bring a law on the same issue or at least there will be a general discussion on the Bill, which itself holds a significant value in the process of policymaking.

Another tangent to this could be to strengthen the individuality of MPs, as MPs are restricted and regulated by WHIP of their respective political parties, wherein the individuality of MPs is compromised. In such a situation, PMBs play an important role in justifying their individual roles as policymakers, where they introduce legislation in the form of a PMB.

The History Of Private Members’ Legislations

According to PRS Legislative Research, only 14 bills till now have turned into legislation. Six of them were passed in 1956 alone. The last PMB passed by Parliament was The Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Bill, 1968 that became an Act on 9 August, 1970. The first PMB, which became law, was the Muslim Wakfs Bill, 1952.

A total of 328 PMBs were introduced in the 14th Lok Sabha, and only 14 were discussed.

The Rights of Transgender Protection Bill, 2014 was the last PMB that was passed in Rajya Sabha unanimously but was never discussed in Lok Sabha.

How A Private Member Bill Forced The Government To Bring A Law On The Same Subject

The Rights of Transgender Protection Bill, 2014 was introduced as a PMB by Tiruchi Siva, MP, and was unanimously accepted across all party lines and was passed in Rajya Sabha, something which had not happened in the last 46 years.

The following Bill was never discussed in Lok Sabha because of which its journey to become legislation as a Private Member Bill failed.

Clearance of a Private Member Bill from Rajya Sabha on such an important issue, which was also directed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the landmark judgement of NALSA vs Union of India of 2014. It came as a setback for the Government, and without wasting much time, they brought their own version of the Bill in the Parliament as Transgender Persons Bill, 2016.

The Bill was referred to the Standing Committee for more discussions and suggestions and was finally passed from the Lok Sabha in 2018.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, was finally passed by the Parliament and became law in 2019. It is also important to note that there were some contentions drawn by the opposition members and by Transgender Community as well on the above statute.

Nevertheless, the journey of this law started in the Parliament with a Private Member Bill, which forced the Government to act and bring a law on it.

Recent Private Member Bills Introduced In Parliament

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2021 introduced by Shri Anubhav Mohanty, wherein the statement and object of Bill states that:

“To ensure that remand does not take place in a mechanical manner and the court should consider both the continuing need, if any, for the person to remain in custody, as well as the length of under trial incarceration undergone by him, in determining whether the person should be released or sent to remand. An amendment to this effect is required to be provided in section 309(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.”

The Management and Control of Stubble Bill, 2021 introduced by Shri Bhola Singh, wherein the statement and objects of Bill states that:

“The Bill seeks to provide for formulation of national policy to set up advanced tools, techniques and technologies for control and management of the disposal of stubble directly outside the agricultural farm lands, for their scientific management and for preparing a model stubble management policy to prevent open burning or open depositing of stubble garbage or waste so as to protect the environment and ultimately mother Earth from being polluted by smoke and smog spread due to the burning of stubble in open fields which is also responsible for the climate change.”

The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2021 introduced by Dr D Ravikumar, wherein the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill states that:

“The Bill seeks to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951 with a view to confer voting rights to every under trial who is under custody of the police and person convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term not more than two years.”

The Supreme Court of India (Establishment of a Permanent Bench at Chennai) Bill, 2020 introduced by Dr M K Vishnu Prasad, wherein the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill states:

“The Bill seeks to establish a permanent Bench of the Supreme Court in Chennai in the State of Tamil Nadu. Geographically, Tamil Nadu is a strategic location for a permanent Bench as it is easily accessible for litigants of southern, south-eastern and south-western States. 

“This will provide for a robust mechanism not only to manage pendency of court cases but simultaneously makes the justice opportune, public-friendly and efficient without any regional disparity.”

The Pre-Legislative Consultation Bill, 2019 introduced by Supriya Sule, wherein the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill states that:

“This Bill seeks to provide a degree of legislative backing to the Pre-legislative consultation policy in order to ensure better compliance as well as provide for procedures, mechanisms and penalties in relation to the conducting of consultations.”

The above-mentioned PMBs were introduced in the latest winter session of the Parliament, but no discussion took place in case of all PMBs introduced.

After assessing the following bills and reading about what they contend, one might develop a notion that this is what society expects or at least they are touching the issues which are related to current problems prevailing in the society.

Should the law be made on the issue is a subject for discussion in the Parliament, but discussions should definitely take place in case of Private Member Bills introduced in the Parliament.

Lack Of Time Leads To No Discussion

The Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is almost similar in the case of PMBs. They can only be introduced on Fridays in the latter half of the session unless the Speaker and the Chairperson may allot some other day for the introduction.

Now, this is where the whole problem lies. If you see the recent trend, Parliamentary Sessions have become shorter in comparison to previous days. Between the 1950s and 60s, Parliament used to sit for almost 120 days on average. But in the last decade, the situation has totally changed because the number of days Parliament worked has gone down to 60 days in a year.

The last 2.5 hours of each Friday during the sessions are dedicated to PMBs. Now, if we go into the details of how many days Parliament functioned in the last 2 years, it would go like this:

• Monsoon session of 2019 for 52 days (approx.)
• Budget session of 2020 for 34 days (approx.)
• Monsoon session of 2020 for 8 days (approx.)
• Budget session of 2021 for 32 days (approx.)
• Monsoon session of 2021 for 24 days (approx.)
• Winter session of 2021 for 24 days (approx.)

As 2020 was extraordinary for everyone due to Covid-19, its effect also hampered the functioning of Parliament as both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha worked for less than 50 days. The Winter Session of 2020 was completely cancelled. Although many Parliamentary Democracies shifted to virtual and hybrid forums, we kept our Parliament closed.

Now, one can easily understand how the low amount of time has resulted as a constraint in order to have discussions on PMBs.

Lack of time indeed is a fundamental reason because of which most of the PMBs are not discussed. However, there is another tangent to the problem, which makes the system more corrupt and unpleasant for PMBs.

As mentioned above, PMBs can only be introduced on Fridays and that too in the latter half of the day, but MPs, along with their legislative duty, have several commitments to their electorates and constituencies from which they belong. Therefore, the majority of them skip the last half of the day, which is reserved for the introduction and discussion of PMBs and make a visit to their respective constituencies.

“The Devil is in the details”, but for PMBs, “The Devil is in the Fridays”.

The best possible solution could be to change it from Friday to some other day or dedicate some other day apart from Friday’s is something, which could definitely make the structure of PMBs more efficient and inclusive.

No Information On The Private Members’ Committee Of The Lok Sabha

For better execution and for proper scrutiny of PMBs before they are introduced, a Parliamentary Committee has been established, which has the following functions:

1. To allot time to Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions and to examine Private Members’ Bills seeking to amend the Constitution before their introduction in Lok Sabha.
2. To examine all PMBs after they are introduced and before they are taken up for consideration in the House and to classify them according to their nature, urgency and importance into two categories, namely, category A and B and also to examine such Private Members’ Bills where the legislative competence of the House is challenged.

However, the worst part is although there is a specific committee dedicated to PMBs, currently, it is only symbolic and totally dysfunctional. If anyone goes and visits the Lok Sabha website and search for the information on Private Members’ Bills Committee, the only information available on it is “Information Awaited“.

As per the Lok Sabha website, there is no information on its members, the subject selected, bills referred, etc.

As per the rule, the Private Members’ Committee consists of 15 members, the Deputy Speaker being its Chairman. Since the commencement of the 17th Lok Sabha, no Deputy Speaker has been nominated by the House. The power to nominate the members for the following Committee is in the hands of the Speaker of Lok Sabha.

Some Suggestions

Firstly, as suggested above, the number of days for discussing PMBs should be increased and Friday must not be the day for discussing PMBs because of less participation of MPs.

Secondly, Private Members’ Committee should be constituted in the coming Budget session of the Parliament because constituting Private Members’ Committee would lead to scrutiny of all PMBs before getting introduced in the Parliament and PMBs would be tabled in the Parliament according to the category in which they fall as per the suggestion of the Committee.

This, in turn, will make the system of PMBs more functional, systematic and vibrant.