The Lawmakers Must Work

Context: The recent Kerala governor’s rejection by the Kerala governor to summon the state legislature on the calls for scrutiny of State legislatures that have an abysmal record in terms of number of sittings per year

Arguments against governor blocking the convening of sessions of a legislature

• Against the spirit of the constitution: According to the Constitution, the governor has to summon (binding) state legislature to meet for a session based on the recommendation of the council of ministers.
  • Such events have a possibility of the snowballing into a constitutional crisis.
• Dismal record of the sittings of state legislatures: In the last 20 years, state assemblies across the country, on average, met for less than 30 days in a year. 
  • However, states like Kerala, Odisha and Karnataka are exceptions. g. The Kerala Vidhan Sabha has on an average met for 50 days every year for the last ten years. 
  • The trend across the country is that legislatures meet for longer budget sessions at the beginning of the year.
  • Then for the rest of the year, they meet in fits and spurts and pay lip service to the constitutional requirement that there should not be a gap of six months between two sessions.

Need for increasing sittings of the state legislature

• Legislatures are arenas for debate and giving voice to public opinion: As accountability institutions, they are responsible for asking tough questions of the government and highlighting uncomfortable truths.
• For improving governance in the country: by continuous and close scrutiny by legislatures.

Way forward: Create a fixed calendar of sittings of legislatures. Its benefits would be:

• Government can plan its calendar for bringing in new laws.
• Increase in the time for debate and discussion.
• Will help to get rid of the politics surrounding the convening of sessions of a legislature.