The first session of Parliament of the 18th Lok Sabha begins on June 24 i.e. today and will operate till July 3.

SESSION

The President has the power to summon(Art.85(1)) and prorogue(Art.85(2a)) either House of Parliament or to dissolve Lok Sabha(Art.85(2b)).

Session of Parliament

A Session is the period of time between the meeting of a Parliament and its prorogation. During the course of a Session, either House may adjourn to such date as it pleases.

The power to convene a session of Parliament rests with the government.The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs makes the decision. The President formalizes the Committee’s decision, summoning MPs to meet for a session in the President’s name.

 There should not be a gap of more than six months between two sessions of the Parliament.

By convention, 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.

Special session: The constitution of India makes provisions for special circumstances where sittings of parliament can be called for if members of parliament disapprove of the Emergency imposed. For this, a minimum of 1/10th of members of Lok Sabha request the speaker in a written note.

The summoning of Parliament is specified in Article 85 of the Constitution. This provision specified that the central legislature had to be summoned to meet at least once a year and that not more than 6
months could elapse between two sessions.

Article 87(1) of the Constitution provides:- 

“At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the House of the People and at the commencement of the first session of each year the President shall address both Houses of Parliament assembled together and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.”

The Indian Parliament comprises the President and the two Houses-Lok Sabha(House of the People) and Rajya Sabha(Council of States).

The period between the prorogation of Parliament and its reassembly in a new Session is termed as a ‘recess’.

• ‘Adjournment’ is a short break of a few hours or days and then the House resumes its sitting.

• If the adjournment is done without any time scale, it is known as ‘adjournment sine die.

Adjournment

This is a short recess within a session of the Parliament, called by the Presiding Officer of the House. An
adjournment suspends the work in a sitting for a specified time, which may be hours, days or weeks. In this case, the time of reassembly is specified. An adjournment does not bring to end a session, but merely postpones the proceedings of the house to a future time and date.

Adjournment Sine Die

When the Presiding Officer adjourns the house without fixing any date or time for the next meeting, it means terminating a sitting of Parliament for an indefinite period.

Prorogation

The President on the advice of the Council of Ministers prorogue 

Prorogation means the termination of a session of the House. Prorogation terminates both the sitting and session of the House. All pending notices (except those for introducing bills) lapse, and members must give fresh notices for the next session.