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The monthly magazine, August 2026 · Polity and Governance › Functioning: sessions, committees and oversight

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How Parliament worked: the Monsoon Session of 2026

LeadPrelims and Mains13 Aug 2026

Why in news

  • The Monsoon Session of Parliament ran from 20 July to 13 August 2026, with both Houses meeting on 19 days.
  • By the count of PRS Legislative Research, the Lok Sabha worked for only 15 per cent of its scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha for 33 per cent, yet eleven Bills were passed, nine of them in the Lok Sabha with no member other than the Minister speaking.
  • The session shows the three jobs of a legislature, making law, controlling the purse and holding the executive to account, being done in the first case without debate and in the third case hardly at all.
The new Parliament building. The Lok Sabha worked for 15 per cent of its scheduled time in the Monsoon Session of 2026
The new Parliament building. The Lok Sabha worked for 15 per cent of its scheduled time in the Monsoon Session of 2026Photo: Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Government Open Data Licence
  • 19sitting days, 20 July to 13 August 2026
  • 15 per centthe Lok Sabha's share of scheduled time actually worked; 33 per cent in the Rajya Sabha
  • 11Bills passed, besides the Finance and Appropriation Bills; nine passed the Lok Sabha with only the Minister speaking
  • 9 minutesthe whole of Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, in which two questions were answered orally
  • 21 per centthe share of Bills referred to committees in the 18th Lok Sabha, against 16 per cent in the 17th and 28 per cent in the 16th

Background

  • Article 85 says the President summons each House to meet, and not more than six months may pass between the last sitting of one session and the first of the next. The President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers, so the government fixes the calendar.
  • By convention there are three sessions a year: the Budget Session, the Monsoon Session and the Winter Session.
  • Parliament has three jobs: to make law, to control the purse, and to hold the executive to account. A session is judged on all three, and a long list of Bills passed says nothing about the other two.
Monsoon Session 2026: minutes spent on each Bill in the Lok Sabha Eleven Bills passed besides the Finance and Appropriation Bills; nine with only the Minister speaking (PRS Legislative Research) Public Examinations (Amendment) 10 h 54 min National Honour (Amendment) 14 min Tribunals Reforms 12 min NCDC (Amendment) 10 min Bankers' Books Evidence 5 min Kerala (Alteration of Name) 5 min Mines and Minerals (Amendment) 5 min SC (Number of Judges) Amendment 4 min MSME Development (Amendment) 3 min Taxation and Other Laws 3 min Registration of Births and Deaths 2 min The first bar is cut at two hours; the scale is 120 minutes across the full width. The same Bills took 40 minutes to two and a half hours each in the Rajya Sabha.
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Law making without debate

  • Eleven Bills passed in the session, all of them introduced in the same session, so none had been with a committee.
  • Nine passed the Lok Sabha with no speaker other than the Minister. The Tribunals Reforms Bill was introduced and passed on the same day, in 12 minutes; the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill took five minutes; the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill took four.
  • One Bill showed what debate looks like: the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill was discussed for about 11 hours by 48 members in the Lok Sabha and for nearly seven hours by 35 members in the Rajya Sabha.
  • The Rajya Sabha did better on every Bill, giving the Supreme Court judges Bill two hours and 33 speakers and the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill over two hours and 24 speakers.
  • Only about one Bill in five has gone to a committee in the present Lok Sabha. The one referral of the session was the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, sent to a Joint Committee of 31 members.

Oversight that did not happen

  • Question Hour, the first hour of a sitting in which members question Ministers, ran for nine minutes in the Lok Sabha in the whole session, one per cent of its scheduled time. In the Rajya Sabha it ran for 12 per cent.
  • No debates, discussions or private members' business were taken up in the Lok Sabha.
  • The post of Deputy Speaker has been vacant for the whole of the 17th Lok Sabha and two years into the 18th. Article 93 says the House shall choose one "as soon as may be", but sets no deadline; a petition on the delay has been pending in the Supreme Court since it issued notice in February 2023.

Control of the purse

  • Parliament approved excess grants for money spent in 2022-23 beyond what it had voted. Under Article 115 an excess grant is voted only after the Public Accounts Committee has examined it, which explains the gap of three years.
  • The Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill, the instruments of the purse, are not counted among the eleven.

Why disruption persists

  • The Opposition sees disruption as its only tool when its demands for a debate on a subject of its choosing are refused.
  • The government sets the agenda and, with a majority, has little reason to yield time.
  • The anti defection law removes the need to persuade members: the whip decides the vote, so a debate changes nothing.
  • Fewer sittings: the first Lok Sabha sat for about 135 days a year; recent ones sit for far fewer, which makes each lost day costlier.

Analysis

  • Output is not deliberation. The Rajya Sabha Chairman regretted the disruptions on the last day and the government counted the Bills passed as proof of productivity; both can be true, and a House that restructures sixteen tribunals in twelve minutes is productive in the way a rubber stamp is.
  • The scrutiny moved to the wrong House. The constitutional design assumes the Lok Sabha will examine what the executive proposes; this session the examination happened almost wholly in the Rajya Sabha, so the House that holds the government's confidence scrutinised it least.
  • The remedies are procedural, not constitutional. A rule that refers every Bill to a committee unless the House votes otherwise, a minimum number of sitting days, and opposition days on which the agenda is not the government's need no amendment.
  • Disruption is the symptom, control is the cause. The government controls the calendar, the agenda and, through the whip, the vote; a Mains answer should resist the easy claim that the Opposition alone is to blame.

The way forward

  • A minimum number of sitting days fixed by rule or law; the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution suggested 120 days for the Lok Sabha.
  • Opposition days, on which the Opposition sets the agenda, as in the United Kingdom.
  • Refer every Bill to a committee unless the House decides otherwise by a vote, so that scrutiny becomes the default.
  • Elect a Deputy Speaker within a fixed time of a new House meeting.

Exam lens

  • Prelims: Article 85, not more than six months between sessions; Article 93, Speaker and Deputy Speaker; Article 115, supplementary, additional and excess grants; adjournment sine die is by the presiding officer, prorogation by the President; a Joint Committee has members of both Houses, the FCRA Bill's has 31; the 18th Lok Sabha's committee referral rate is 21 per cent.
  • Mains: "Parliament is passing more laws and debating fewer." Examine the causes of declining deliberation in the Lok Sabha and suggest procedural remedies.

Asked before: Prelims 2024 · Prelims 2022 · Mains 2021 GS2

Show the questions
  1. Prelims 2024: With reference to the Parliament of India, consider the following statements: 1. Prorogation of a House by the President of India does not require the advice of the Council of Ministers. 2. Prorogation of a House is generally done after the House is adjourned sine die but there is no bar to the President of India prorogating the House which is in session. 3. Dissolution of the Lok Sabha is done by the President of India who, save in exceptional circumstances, does so on the advice of the Council of Ministers. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
  2. Prelims 2022: With reference to Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, consider the following statements: 1. As per the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, the election of Deputy Speaker shall be held on such date as the Speaker may fix. 2. There is a mandatory provision that the election of a candidate as Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha shall be from either the principal opposition party or the ruling party. 3. The Deputy Speaker has the same power as of the Speaker when presiding over the sitting of the House and no appeal lies against his rulings. 4. The well established parliamentary practice regarding the appointment of Deputy Speaker is that the motion is moved by the Speaker and duly seconded by the Prime Minister. Which of the statements given above are correct?
  3. Mains 2021 GS2: Do Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees keep the administration on its toes and inspire reverence for parliamentary control? Evaluate the working of such committees with suitable examples.

Cases to cite

  • Raja Ram Pal v. Speaker, Lok Sabha (2007): courts cannot question proceedings for irregularity of procedure, but can for illegality or unconstitutionality, under Article 122.
  • Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank (2019): referred to a larger bench the question of what may be passed as a Money Bill.
  • Kalpana Mehta v. Union of India (2018): reports of parliamentary committees may be relied on in court without breach of privilege.

Connects to

Sources
  • PRS Legislative Research, “Functioning of Parliament during Monsoon Session 2026”
  • The Hindu, 13 August 2026, “Rajya Sabha Chairperson regrets disruptions during Monsoon Session; House productivity only 39%”
  • PRS Legislative Research, August 2026, “Monthly Policy Review”

Settled facts (dates of Acts, constitutional provisions, standing definitions) are from standard references.

Filed under: Functioning: sessions, committees and oversight · The monthly magazine, August 2026