"Declining Sitting Days Weaken Parliament's Accountability Role"
Question Hour
the first hour of a sitting when ministers orally answer starred questions and face supplementary questions
Zero Hour
an informal Indian practice letting members raise urgent matters without prior notice
Under Article 85, the President must summon Parliament so that not more than six months elapse between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next. Article 174(1) places an identical duty on Governors for State Legislatures. These provisions fix only a maximum permissible gap between sessions; the Constitution nowhere specifies a minimum number of days a House must actually sit. The framers assumed, given the volume of legislative and oversight business, that sittings would naturally run into hundreds of days a year. Parliament exercises detailed control over the executive through instruments such as Question Hour, Call Attention Motions, and the Adjournment Motion, backed by financial scrutiny through the Demands for Grants and the Public Accounts Committee. Recognising that the six-month rule alone could not guarantee real oversight, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2002) recommended a minimum of 100 sitting days a year for Parliament and around 50 for smaller state assemblies. This recommendation was never made binding, and sitting days have since fallen well short of even that informal benchmark.
Question Hour is the first hour of a sitting, when ministers answer starred questions orally and face unscripted supplementaries that test their command of their own department; the tension this once generated arose precisely because a minister could be caught unprepared on the floor. Zero Hour, an Indian innovation with no formal Rules backing, lets members raise urgent matters without prior notice immediately after Question Hour. A Call Attention Motion lets a member draw a minister's attention to a matter of urgent public importance and demand an authoritative statement in response. The Adjournment Motion, which can only be moved in the Lok Sabha with the support of at least 50 members, is the sharpest tool: it sets aside normal business to discuss a specific government failure and is treated as carrying an implicit censure. …
The Parliament of India exercises control over the functions of the Council of Ministers through
1.Adjournment motion
2.Question hour
3.Supplementary questions
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
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.
Individual Parliamentarian's role as the national law maker is on a decline, which in turn, has adversely impacted the quality of debates and their outcome. Discuss.
Match List I (Parliamentary Device) with List II (Its Function) and select the correct answer using the code given below:
List I:
A.Question Hour
B.Zero Hour
C.Call Attention Motion
D.Adjournment Motion
List II:
1.Raising urgent matters without prior notice immediately after Question Hour
2.Ministers answer starred questions and face supplementary questions
3.Drawing a minister's attention to an urgent public matter for an authoritative statement
4.Discussing a specific government failure with implicit censure, moved only in the Lok Sabha with 50 members' support
Consider the following statements about constitutional provisions on legislative sessions in India:
1.Article 85 requires that not more than six months intervene between two sessions of Parliament.
2.Article 174(1) casts an identical six-month gap requirement on sessions of State Legislatures.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
With reference to Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committees, consider the following statements:
1.There are 24 such committees, with members drawn from both Houses of Parliament.
2.Their recommendations are binding on the government.
Which of the statements given above is correct?
Which one of the following correctly matches the legislative action with the authority empowered to exercise it?
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