Parliament Diary

Parliament met for the 26th Sitting of the Budget Session today.
 
The Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill, 2014 and The National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 were passed by Lok Sabha today.

Constitution Amendment Bills need to be passed by half the total
membership of the House and 2/3rd of the MPs present and voting in the
House. In Lok Sabha today, all MPs present at the time of voting on the
Bill voted in favour of it.

The Bills were then moved by the Minister for consideration and passing
by Rajya Sabha. When the Bills were moved in Rajya Sabha, a discussion
was held in the House whether consideration of both the Bills together
was constitutional. Several Members raised the issue that the
Constitution Amendment Bill would need to be passed first and receive
Presidential Assent before the National Judicial Appointments Commission
Bill could be moved in the House. The Minister agreed, and the
Constitution Amendment Bill was moved for consideration separately. The
discussion on the Bill was ongoing in the Upper House at the time of
sending this diary.
 
To see a video detailing the two Bills, please see here.
 
Dr. M Thambidurai was elected as the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha today.
 
Lok Sabha today also held further discussion on the need to have
stringent legislation to check increasing atrocities against women and
children in the country.
 
Lok Sabha also discussed the need to evolve an effective mechanism to deal with incidents of communal violence in the country
 
Rajya Sabha today undertook a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Child and Development.
 
As of today, 13 new Bills have been introduced in this Session, of which
four have been passed. One Bill has been withdrawn. This leaves 68
Bills pending in Parliament as of today.