Parliament in 2025: A year of law-making, a shortfall in debate
New Delhi: The Parliament in 2025 has operated in a mixed manner regarding efficiency and constraints, given the overfilled political calendar.
Data suggests that, over the sessions, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha sat for a combined total of 62 days each, which consumed a major portion of their allotted time. The Lok Sabha sat for 80 per cent of its allocated time, while the Rajya Sabha sat for a marginal higher percentage, which is 83 per cent compared to the Lok Sabha. This results in a mixed trend regarding consistent performance, but leaves one to wonder regarding the allocation of Parliamentary time.
Less than 30 per cent of the total time in the two Houses was spent on legislative business, including discussions and passage of the legislative agenda.
The Question Hour is considered one of the most important accountability procedures at the disposal of members of Parliament, and it operated for a short span, rather than the scheduled time. Even the limited engagement in the primary activities of Parliament raises questions about the utilisation of the Parliament as a debating chamber.
Despite these limitations, as per the data, the Parliament was able to approve 31 Bills during 2025. Among the major acts passed were the Satyabrata Chakrobarty Memorial Lokpal Act 2025.
The year also witnessed major milestones in opening up the nuclear energy and insurance sectors. The act introducing changes in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 was another major act passed during the year.
The act was significant from a social perspective. The guaranteed number of employment days under the scheme was now set to 125. The funding mechanism of 60:40 for the Centre and states, and 90:10 for the North-East states and hilly states, further emphasised the need for adjustment of fiscal reporting lines.
Since the beginning of the 18th Lok Sabha, a total of 42 Bills have been introduced in the Parliament.
However, only 26 per cent of them, or 11 Bills, have been referred to parliamentary committees for detailed examination, which clearly brings to the fore the trend of less examination of legislative business at the committee stage. It is pertinent to note that only one Bill has been referred to a Standing Committee. Some highly political and constitutional amendments, such as two Bills on simultaneous elections and three Bills pertaining to the dismissal of ministers on the occasion of detention, have been referred to Joint Committees, and all of them are being studied together.
But it would be pertinent here to examine the data from the 18th Lok Sabha, which presents a useful contrasting viewpoint. It can be observed that there exists no significant difference between the participation of MPs based on gender categories, which points towards the balanced participation of both male and female MPs.
