Monsoon Session of Parliament: Over 50 pending Bills, six ordinances to be taken up in 18 days

The Monsoon Session of the Parliament, which will begin on 18 July will be addressing various pending Bills and six ordinances, according to several media reports. The session will also introduce new Bills within a span of 18 days. The government announced on 25 June that the Parliament’s Monsoon Session will commence on 18 July and will go on till 10 August. According to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar six ordinances will be taken up along with the 68 pending Bills in Lok Sabha and 40 in Rajya Sabha. The New Indian Express reported that critical Bills like the 123rd Constitutional Amendment bill that can grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes, which has been pending since April 2017 and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bill that will aid in the inclusion of excluded tribes, which is pending since December 2016, are pending. [caption id=“attachment_4401519” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] The report also mentioned that Bills like the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, that bans commercial surrogacy and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill or the triple talaq bill have been on hold for a long time. However, the government did announce that the triple talaq bill is on top of their agenda. Another important bill is the Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017. According to LiveMint, other Bills lined up for the Monsoon Session of the Parliament include the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 and the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017. Reports say that Opposition parties will be expecting the session to address various other issues like Jammu and Kashmir issues, ceasefire violations and the political climate in the state, fuel and commodity price hike and Karnataka Assembly elections. The Tribune reported that Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel met former prime minister Manmohan Singh to seek the Opposition’s support for the legislative agendas. The former prime minister also appreciated the government’s initiative to meet him. He said that it was the “responsibility of both ruling and Opposition parties to ensure both Houses worked smoothly”. Other issues that the Opposition parties are likely to bring up, according to an India Today report, are the UNHRC report regarding women’s safety in India and laws that are required to curb the activities of economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. Other Bills that will be addressed on the economic front include the Code of Wages Bill, the Factories (Amendment) Bill, the Contract Labour Amendment Bill and the bill to open an international arbitration centre in Delhi, according to The New Indian Express. The report also said that the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill has been pending since May 2015 and the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill since December 2014. The Tribune reported that the six ordinances that will be replaced are Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance; Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance; Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of HCs (Amendment) Ordinance; Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance; National Sports University Ordinance; Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance. The other arbitrary bill, according to Economic Times, is the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre to facilitate the building of an institute similar to London Court of International Arbitration, the Indian Arbitration Council Act, 2017 which will give a framework to make India a global hub or arbitration and the Specific Relief (amendment) Bill, 2018. This bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha but, it will be introduced during the session. This bill makes significant changes to the Specific Relief Act, 1963. Another bill, as reported by Businessline, which will be introduced in the Monsoon Session is the Dam Safety Bill, 2018. This bill seeks to help all the States and Union Territories to adopt uniform dam safety procedures to help safeguard human life, dams, livestock and property. It also proposes to set up a National Dam Safety Authority to implement policies and guidelines regarding dams in India.