President Ram Nath Kovind has prorogued the Rajya Sabha days after the Winter Session of the Upper House was adjourned sine die.

The Rajya Sabha was on adjourned sine die on December a day ahead of the scheduled date of December 23. President prorogued the House on December 24. “The Rajya Sabha which adjourned sine die on the 22nd December 2021 has been prorogued by the President on the 24th December 2021,” a government communique mentioned.

The Winter Session saw Opposition MPs regularly protesting over a host of issues in the Upper House, especially on the revocation of suspension of 12 MPs and sacking of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni over his jailed son Ashish Mishra’s involvement in the killing of eight people in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri incident took place in October beginning.

The Parliament commenced on November 29 and was scheduled to conclude on December 23.

Soon after Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die, the government launched an attack on the Opposition of disrupting proceedings of Parliament during the Winter Session that culminated on December 22.

Speaking on behalf of the Central government, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi had slammed the Opposition for their actions to continue disrupting the proceedings of both the Houses of Parliament– the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha– during the entire session that provided 18 sittings spread over a period of 24 days.

The Minister had also informed that the government referred six bills to parliamentary committees for greater scrutiny, including the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill that seeks to override personal laws of different religions.

He had said the session was curtailed one day earlier than scheduled on completion of essential government business.

The session provided 18 sittings spread over a period of 24 days, and a total of 13 Bills (12 Bills in Lok Sabha and one Bill in Rajya Sabha) were introduced during the session and 11 Bills were passed by both the Houses of Parliament.

The passed Bills include Appropriation Bill relating to the Supplementary Demands for Grants for the year 2021-22 which was passed by Lok Sabha, transmitted to Rajya Sabha and will be deemed to have been passed by both Houses after the expiry of 14 days under Article 109(5), the Minister said.

Three Bills replacing the Ordinances, namely, the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 (9 of 2021), the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 (10 of 2021) and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Ordinance 2021(8 of 2021) which were promulgated by the President before Winter Session, 2021 were considered and passed by the Houses.

One Bill namely the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was referred to the Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament.

Some of the other important Bills including three ordinances replacing Bills passed by Houses of Parliament are the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021; the Dam Safety Bill, 2021; the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulations) Bill, 2021; the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2021; the National Institute of Phar Bill, 2021; the High Court and Supreme Court Amendment Bill, 2021; the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 202; the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021; and the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021

Two Short Duration Discussions under Rule 193 were also held in Lok Sabha on COVID-19 pandemic and various aspects related to it, and Climate Change.
In Rajya Sabha, one discussion on the situation arising out of cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus in the country was held.