No notice for winter session of Parliament

New Delhi : Parliament’s winter session appears to be off though tentatively planned from November 21. The notice for a session has to be given at least two weeks in advance and the President has not issued any notice so far calling the session.

Indications are that the next will be the budget session that may start by the middle of January and that will suffice the Constitutional requirement of holding a session within six months of the last session as the monsoon session had ended only on August 11, giving a window to the government to hold the next session up to February.

The government has, however, kept a window open to hold a 2-week winter session from December 13 to 22 to complete the urgent business as the campaigning in the second phase of Gujarat Assembly elections ends on December 12 and leaders of both BJP and Congress will be free to rush back for the Parliament session, a source in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said.

They said Prime Minister Modi was not inclined to have the winter session since he as well as all senior ministers will be busy campaigning in the Gujarat Assembly elections because of the high stakes it holds for him.

In any case, the budget session has to be called in January as the Government plans to table the Union Budget in Parliament on February 1 to get it approved before the start of the next financial year on April 1, as was done also this year.