STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday, drawing curtains on the 19-day-long Winter Session of Parliament, which saw the passage of crucial bills, including one to repeal the 20-year-old MNREGA and another on opening up the civil nuclear sector for private participation.
The total sitting hours during the Winter Session was 92 hours and 25 minutes.
As soon as the House met for the day, Speaker Om Birla read out his brief valedictory address, noting that the productivity of the Lok Sabha during the session was registered at 111 per cent, with members sitting till late hours to discuss crucial legislation.
He then adjourned the House sine die (for an indefinite period), drawing curtains on the brief session that commenced on December 1.
When Birla was reading out his valedictory statement, some members were heard raising “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai” slogans. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present when the proceedings were adjourned.
During the 15 sittings of the Winter Session, the House took up two politically-charged debates — one on the 150 years of Vande Matram and the other on election reforms.
The prime minister had initiated a discussion to commemorate the completion of 150 years of the national song. The House discussed the subject for 11 hours and 32 minutes, during which 65 members participated.
A debate on air pollution, which was to be initiated by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, could not take place.
The opposition had been insisting on a debate on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in 12 states and Union Territories, but the government made it clear that the poll panel and its functioning cannot be discussed in the House, and agreed to hold a debate on election reforms instead.
The issue was discussed for approximately 13 hours, with the participation of 63 MPs. The opposition, however, focused its attack against the government on SIR, the new law on the appointment of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners, and the “vote chori” issue.
Eight bills were passed during the session.
The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB-G RAM G Bill, assuring 125 days of guaranteed jobs for rural India, was passed amid opposition protests on Thursday, including tearing of papers.
The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, which seeks to open the tightly-controlled civil nuclear sector for private participation, was also passed during the session.
The Lok Sabha also passed a bill to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector to 100 per cent from the current 74 per cent. It is expected to increase insurance penetration, lower premiums, and boost job creation.
The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025, was cleared by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote, a day after it was passed by the Lok Sabha. The Lower House also passed a Bill to repeal 65 amendment Acts and six principal laws, which had lost relevance.
The Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025 were also among the bills passed in the Lok Sabha during the session. The House also passed the Supplementary Demands for Grants – First Batch, 2025-26.
A bill to set up a higher education regulator — the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhisthan Bill, 2025 — was referred to a joint committee of the two Houses.
It seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Another bill on the market securities code was introduced and referred to a department-related standing committee for further examination.
During the session, 300 starred questions were admitted, and 72 were answered orally. A total of 3,449 unstarred questions were admitted during the Session.
In total, 408 matters of urgent public importance were raised by the members during the Zero Hour, and 372 matters were taken up under Rule 377. On December 11, as many as 150 members raised their matters during Zero Hour in the House.
PRS Legislative, a think tank, said the Lok Sabha functioned for 103 per cent of its scheduled time and the Rajya Sabha for 104 per cent. Each House spent over 40 per cent of its time on debates.
It also noted that seven out of the nine Bills introduced in the Winter session were passed within a week. The think tank pointed out that private members’ bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha for the first time since August 2024.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan on Friday strongly disapproved of disruptions by Opposition members during the passage of the rural employment guarantee bill (G RAM G), terming the conduct “unbecoming of Members of Parliament”, and urged them to introspect and refrain from such behaviour in future.
Radhakrishnan read out a synopsis of the legislative and other business transacted during the 15-day sitting of the Winter session before adjourning the proceedings sine die.
Adjourned sine die (Latin for ‘without a day’) means suspending a parliamentary session indefinitely, without setting a specific date to reconvene. It’s used when legislative bodies end a session without naming a future date for reassembly.
The Winter session of Parliament started on December 1.
“Disruption created during yesterday’s sitting by the Opposition Members by shouting slogans, displaying placards, disrupting the Minister replying to the discussion, tearing up papers and throwing them in the well of the House showed conduct unbecoming of Members of Parliament.
“I earnestly hope that Hon’ble Members would introspect and not repeat such unruly behaviour in future,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha sat past midnight on Thursday to pass legislation that replaced the 20-year-old rural employment scheme — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) — by boosting the number of guaranteed workdays to 125, up from the current 100 days per household for unskilled manual labour.
Opposition MPs protested the dropping of the name of the Father of the Nation from the new legislation, Guarantee for Employment and Livelihood Mission – Rural (Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission – Rural).
Other than that, the 269th Session of the Upper House was “highly productive”, registering 121 per cent productivity with sittings spanning about 92 hours, he said.
Delivering his valedictory remarks, Radhakrishnan said the Winter Session was significant as it marked his first stint presiding over the House after assuming office.
He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of the House J P Nadda, and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge for their felicitations.
“The warmth and affection in your felicitations proved a source of great encouragement for me as I sat down discharging my constitutional responsibility as the Chairman of this august House,” he said.
He said that in his first address, he sought the cooperation of members for the smooth functioning of the House. “I am happy that Hon’ble Members cooperated with the Chair to complete a significant amount of Business during this Winter Session.”
The Chairman noted that the House agreed to extend sittings or skip lunch recess on five days to transact business.
He said the session recorded an unprecedented rise in Zero Hour activity, with an average of over 84 notices received daily — a 31 per cent increase over the previous two sessions — while matters actually raised averaged more than 15 per day, up nearly 50 per cent.
