The Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die on Thursday, a day ahead of the scheduled end of Parliament’s Winter session. Before adjourning the House indefinitely, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar lamented that the House lost nearly 22 hours of its scheduled time due to the opposition disrupting its proceedings, and said weaponizing disruptions and disturbance as a political strategy was against constitutional obligation.
He said the overall productivity of the House stood at 79 per cent. “We were able to transact business for 65 hours during the 14 sittings and addressed over 2,300 questions from the treasury and opposition benches. During this period, over 4,300 papers were laid on the table,” he stated.
“I am pained to state that nearly 22 hours were lost due to avoidable disruptions adversely impacting our overall productivity that finally stood at 79 per cent,” he said. During the Winter session, 46 MPs were suspended from the Rajya Sabha for unruly behaviour and misconduct.
Dhankhar said a total of 17 bills, including important and path-breaking ones related to Jammu and Kashmir, appointment of election commissioners, telecom sector and the criminal justice system, were passed during the Winter session. The Upper House of Parliament was adjourned sine die (indefinitely) after it passed three bills that seek to replace the colonial-era criminal laws — the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act.
Dhankhar said the three bills — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — unshackled the colonial legacy of criminal jurisprudence that was hurtful to the citizens of this country and favoured alien rulers. After the historic steps of abrogation of Article 370 and provision of one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the House afforded the benefit of the same to the people of Jammu and Kashmir through the bills passed during the session, he stated.
The Post Office Bill revamped the old colonial structure to set the stage for fulfilment of the aspirations of the people of the country, he said. These bills represented the spirit of ‘Panch Praan’ that would lay a firm foundation for Bharat’s Amrit Kaal, he stated.
He also stated that during the course of the session, interns from various institutions from Andaman, Kerala, Rajasthan, Ladakh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had the benefit to observe the functioning of Rajya Sabha. “It was a part of our effort to establish a link with younger generations of this country whose future invariably rests with our constitutional obligations inside this Chamber,” he stated. The House also cleared the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 that aims to reform the country’s century-old telecom law to make the sector investor-friendly, prioritises user protection but also extends powers to the government to intercept communications.
Earlier in the day, the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die. The Winter session began on December 4 and was scheduled to conclude on December 22.
Before a large number of MPs were suspended, the opposition had repeatedly demanded a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah in the House on the security breach on December 13. In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, two persons jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour, released yellow smoke from canisters and shouted slogans before being overpowered by some MPs.
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