{"id":74307,"date":"2020-12-25T18:55:21","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T13:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=74307"},"modified":"2021-03-04T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T08:16:04","slug":"issue-of-summoning-state-legislature-and-their-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/issue-of-summoning-state-legislature-and-their-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue of summoning state legislature and their performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Synopsis:\u00a0<\/b>Conflicts like the one in Kerala over the power to summon the state legislature, will only add up to the already dismal performance of sessions of state legislatures.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Issue of summoning the sessions in state legislature:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The events in Kerala and Rajasthan are an abnormality.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"2\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Kerala Event:\u00a0<\/b>Lately, Kerala government recommended governor for summoning the state\u2019s legislature for a one-day session to discuss the issue of farmers\u2019 protest, but recommendation was turned down by governor on the ground that there is no emergent situation to meet the assembly on such short notice.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"2\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Event in Rajasthan:<\/b>\u00a0The Rajasthan governor had rejected the recommendation of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot\u2019s government to call a session for proving the majority of his government.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"2\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Constitutional Provision:<\/b>\u00a0The state government is constitutionally empowered to call a session of the legislature.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The dates and the duration of the session\u00a0is decided by\u00a0the council of ministers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Governor is communicated of their decision, who is constitutionally bound to act on most matters on the aid and advice of the government.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The state legislature\u00a0is then summoned by governor\u00a0to meet for a session.\u202f\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Such conflicts between the governor and the government are hurdles in the functioning of state legislators, which are already suffering from dismal performances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Performance of state legislatures<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The data as follows depicts the dismal performance of the state legislature in their functioning;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Number of assembly meetings:\u00a0<\/b>In the last 20 years, state assemblies across the country, on average, met for less than 30 days in a year. But states like Kerala, Odisha, Karnataka are an exception.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"o\" data-font=\"Courier New\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The Kerala Vidhan Sabha, for example, has on average met for 50 days every year for the last 10 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Performance of state legislatures:<\/b>\u00a0Legislatures meet for longer budget sessions at the beginning of the year. Then for the rest of the year fewer meetings are held just to meet the constitutional requirement that there should not be a gap of six months between two sessions of a legislature.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><b>What are the reasons for decline in the sitting days of the state legislature?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The blame for the decline in the sitting days of the state legislatures rests with the government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Interest of government:<\/b>\u00a0Legislatures are grounds for debate and giving voice to public opinion. As accountability institutions, they are responsible for asking tough questions to the government and highlighting uncomfortable truths.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"o\" data-font=\"Courier New\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">So, it is in the interest of a state government to organize lesser sittings of the legislature and bypass their inquiry.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Not enough time:\u00a0<\/b>Lesser number of sitting days also means that state governments are free to make laws through ordinances and when they assemble legislatures, there is little time for MLAs to inspect laws brought before them.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><b>What can be done?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Continuous and close scrutiny by legislatures is essential for improving governance in the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"4\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Increasing the number of working days<\/b>\u00a0for state legislatures is a first step in increasing their effectiveness. One way to do that is by assembling legislatures to meet all around the year.\u202f\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"4\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">In many mature democracies, a fixed calendar of sittings of legislatures, with breaks in between, is announced at the beginning of the year.\u00a0<b>It allows the government to plan its calendar for bringing in new laws.\u202f<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25aa\" data-font=\"Noto Sans Symbols\" data-listid=\"3\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>It also has the advantage of increasing the time for debate<\/b>\u00a0and discussion in the legislative assembly. And with the legislature sitting throughout the year, it gets rid of the politics surrounding the convening of sessions of a legislature.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis:\u00a0Conflicts like the one in Kerala over the power to summon the state legislature, will only add up to the already dismal performance of sessions of state legislatures.\u00a0 \u00a0 Issue of summoning the sessions in state legislature:\u00a0 The events in Kerala and Rajasthan are an abnormality.\u00a0\u00a0 Kerala Event:\u00a0Lately, Kerala government recommended governor for summoning the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/issue-of-summoning-state-legislature-and-their-performance\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Issue of summoning state legislature and their performance<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":74359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1296],"class_list":["post-74307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-po_0","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Issue-of-summoning-state-legislature-and-their-performance.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700777584,"cached_date":1704937983},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}