Monsoon Session: Among highest in Bills passed, among lowest in productive hours in 17th LS

On Friday, the tumultuous Monsoon Session of Parliament ended, after seeing the passage of controversial Bills such as the one on Delhi services and data protection, a no-confidence motion against the NDA government, and the introduction of Bills set to make sweeping changes to the criminal and penal codes. Though the Session turned out to be one of the least productive of the 17th Lok Sabha, what is telling is that still 22 bills were passed, including 10 with less than an hour of discussion on each.

Here’s how the Monsoon Session stacks up against previous Parliament Sessions:

Despite working for less than half its scheduled time, this Monsoon Session still managed to pass 22 of the 25 Bills tabled

Lok Sabha worked less than half its scheduled time

Since the beginning of the 17th Lok Sabha in 2019, productivity has been gradually declining. Both Houses of Parliament have worked for well below the planned hours, barring a handful of Sessions earlier in this term. But even among the Sessions since 2019, the just-ended Monsoon Session was among the least productive, working for only 43% of its scheduled time. Only the 2021 Monsoon Session and 2023 Budget Session worked for lesser hours. The Rajya Sabha was slightly more productive than the Lok Sabha this Session, but still managed only 55% of its scheduled hours.