Upcoming Bills in Winter Session of Parliament 2021

Winter is here. And so is the Winter Session of the Indian Parliament! This time it is scheduled from 29th November, 2021 to 23rd December, 2021 with special adherence to COVID- 19 protocols. This date is nowadays approved by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. In this Session, there will be 20 working days (i.e. 20 sittings). Every day there will be one hour of Question Hour and one hour dedicate to Zero Hour by both Houses of Parliament. Last year, the winter session could not be held due to the pandemic. The last three Parliamentary session were also curtailed due to the COVID scare. 

Top agendas of this Session include the passage of Cryptocurrency bill. And also the repeal of three farm laws which has already been passed. Other issues like inflation, militant attacks on civilians in Kashmir, will also be discussed and Opposition are ready for a stormy session against Modi led government. It is also expected to be a heated session, since it comes on the eve of Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Goa. To know more about these bills to be passed, read this article.

Sessions of Parliament

First of all, Parliamentary Sessions has to be conducted every year and the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs currently comprises nine ministers, including those for Defence, Home, Finance, and Law who approves the date of the Sessions and whose decisions are formalised by the President, in whose name MPs are summoned to meet for a session (Article 85 of Constitution).

• India does not have a fixed parliamentary calendar. By Parliamentary convention (not by or under Constitution), Parliament meets for three sessions in a year. 

• The longest, the Budget Session, starts towards the end of January, and concludes by the end of April or first week of May. The session has a recess so that Parliamentary Committees can discuss the budgetary proposals.

• The second session is the three-week Monsoon Session, which usually begins in July and finishes in August. 

• The parliamentary year ends with a three-week-long Winter Session, which is held from November to December.

List of Bills to be passed in Winter Session 

Some of the important bills to be passed in this Sessions are listed below:

The Farm Law Repeal Bill

1. The Farm Laws Repeal Bill- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in this Winter Session passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill without any discussion to repeal the three farm laws against which the farmers were constantly protesting. These laws were opposed by the farmers on the ground that they thought it to be dismantling the mandi system and threatening the MSP for their farm produces. 

The Crypto Bill-

2. The cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 "seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology and its uses". 

• It aims to create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the RBI as crypto is not regulated by RBI at present. 

• This comes days after the first-ever Parliamentary panel discussion on the broad aspects of crypto finance, where a consensus was reached that cryptocurrency can't be stopped but must be regulated by an authority. 

• The panel met days after PM Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting with officials from various ministries and the RBI, on the issue of cryptocurrency.

Three Ordinances turned Bill

As many as 26 new Bills have been listed for introduction in the Winter Session. Also, three ordinances that have been listed for passage will get replaced by these 3 bills, these bills are: 

3. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021. This bill which is likely to be introduced will replace an ordinance that will amend the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

4. Another ordinance is the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021, that will amend the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 will be brought in the next session for introduction and passage.

5. The Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021 Ordinance brought in by the government will now be introduced as a bill to be passed in the winter session. This ordinance was brought in to amend the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.

Introduced Bill to be passed in Winter Session-

Out of these 26 bills, 3 bills that were already introduced in prior Sessions were sent to the Standing Committee for Parliamentary scrutiny that are now likely to be passed. These are:

6. The Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, 2020 which was Introduced in Lok Sabha on 14 September, 2020 was sent to standing committee for health and family welfare and was laid on the table on 19 March 2021 with the updated reports.

7. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 15, 2021 was scrutinised by the standing committee on chemical and fertilisers and its report was presented to the Parliament on August 4, 2021.

8. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019 and sent to the standing committee for social Justice and empowerment has also been listed for passage.

Other Bills-

9. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021 will strengthen and streamline the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. This will help in counter and develop strong mechanisms for dealing with bankruptcy.

10. The Trafficking of Persons (Protection Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021 is aimed at combating trafficking in persons, especially woman and children, to provide for care, protection, assistance and rehabilitation to the victims and also to ensure prosecution of offenders.

11. The Dam Safety Bill passed by Lok Sabha in 2019 is listed for passage in the Rajya Sabha in this Winter Session. It provided for the surveillance, inspection, operation & maintenance of all specified dams across the country.

12. The Surrogacy Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2019 which was passed by Lok Sabha in 2019 was sent to a select committee by the Rajya Sabha on 21st November 2019. A report was then submitted by this committee on 5 February 2020 that has also been listed for passage.

13. Ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls, the Centre is introducing the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill.

14. Inter-Services Organizations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2021- It seeks to "empower the Commander-in-Chief or the Officer-in-Command of Inter-Services Organisations in respect of persons subject to the Army Act, 1950, the Navy Act, 1957, and the Air Force Act, 1950, who are serving under or attached to his command, for maintaining of discipline and proper discharge of their duties".

15. The Emigration Bill, 2021- It will replace the Emigration Act, 1983, to establish a robust, transparent and comprehensive emigration management framework that facilitates safe and orderly migration.

16. The National Anti- Doping Bill, 2021- This bill aims to provide a legislative framework to the NADA for meeting the obligations of India under the convention and the obligations of NADA as a signatory of the WADA Code, as amended from time to time.

Others are:

17. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021

18. The Indian Antarctica Bill, 2021

19. The National Nursing Midwifery Commission Bill, 2021

20. The Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

21. The Cantonment Bill, 2021

22. The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021.

23. The Mediation Bill, 2021

Conclusion

Do you know an average time spent on discussing a bill dropped from 213 minutes in the year 2019 to 85 minutes in 2021! Over the years, due to numerous disruptions and interferences, more than 74 hours on bill discussions gets wasted. In only three of the last 23 LS sessions, the number of sitting hours (indicated by green) is lesser than the hours disrupted (indicated by red) and the 2021 Monsoon Session was one of these. In this Monsoon Session, 14 Bills were passed in the LS after debates spanning 10 minutes or less. 

However, the Farm Law Repeal Bill recently was passed within minutes of its introduction by the Lok Sabha even without discussion. Still, there are more bills left to be laid down, let’s see what happens now? Hence, this Winter Session will not only be restricted to passage of these bills, but various other key issues will also be discussed via short term discussions or debates depending upon the time.