Bills passed in 3 minutes, 9 with no LS MPs speaking: Parliament’s growing scrutiny gap

Parliament is increasingly passing Bills after relatively short periods of discussion. Data compiled from sessions between 2024 and 2026 across both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha show that while a few politically significant Bills did receive several hours of debate in both Houses, many have been cleared after less than an hour of discussion. 

Of the 46 Bills analysed from the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha through the Monsoon Session of 2026, 29 were passed after less than an hour of discussion in at least one House – 18 in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha. 

Each Bill appearing more than once in the dataset was counted only once. Additionally, three pairs of bills – the Waqf (Amendment) and Mussalman Waqf (Repeal) Bills, 2024; the Income-Tax (No.2) and Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bills, 2025; and the National Sports Governance and National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Bills, 2025 – were discussed together and thus counted only once.  

Bills passed within minutes in 2026

The trend was particularly pronounced this year, when 17 Bills were examined in the Budget and Monsoon sessions. The median time Parliament spent discussing a Bill fell to two hours and 20 minutes in 2026 compared to three hours and 52 minutes in 2025 and five hours and 56 minutes in 2024 (half a year). Three of the 17 Bills examined in this year’s sessions received less than an hour of combined discussion in the two Houses. 

Overall, the Rajya Sabha spent 40 hours discussing these Bills, compared to 35 hours and 35 minutes in the Lok Sabha – a gap that widened sharply in the Monsoon Session.

During the 19-day Monsoon Session this year, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha functioned for 15 percent and 33 percent of their scheduled time. Except for two days, the Lok Sabha did not function for more than one hour. The Rajya Sabha’s functioning was the lowest since the Budget Session of 2023. The chair adjourned the Lok Sabha 35 times and the Rajya Sabha 37 times during the session, according to PRS Legislative Research.

Disruption undermining scrutiny isn’t new, TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sagrika Ghose argued, pointing to the passage of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in 2023 as an earlier example. Speaking to Newslaundry, she said, “How can you pass bills when the house is not in order? For instance, the BNS law was passed when 146 MPs were suspended. How can you pass such significant legislation amending the entire architecture of India’s criminal laws, while 146 opposition MPs remain suspended and absent from the House?”

That loss of parliamentary time showed up concretely in this year’s numbers too. Several key Bills in 2026 received less than an hour of total discussion time. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, for instance, was discussed for just 45 minutes: five minutes in the Lok Sabha and 40 minutes in the Rajya Sabha, while the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was debated for 54 minutes.

On the Mines and Minerals Bill, Ghose said, “the legislation was highly damaging because it massively expanded the Centre’s control over mines across states, yet it was passed in the Lok Sabha in just five minutes.”

Several other Bills received only a few minutes of discussion:

Does the brevity of debate reflect the significance of what’s being passed? The MSME Development (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was passed in three minutes, aims to make small businesses more financially stable and better able to continue operations, as per a report by The Times of India. Since MSMEs are major employers and form an important part of India’s supply chains, improving their cash flow could entail wider benefits for the economy.

Vinod Bhanu, executive director at the Centre for Legislative Research and Advocacy (CLRA), said, “⁠Legislative speed is increasingly replacing legislative scrutiny. The clearest example came in Monsoon 2026. Parliament passed 11 Bills despite severe disruption, while 9 of those Bills passed Lok Sabha without a single MP, other than the minister, participating in debate. Some significant Bills were cleared in three, four or five minutes. This is legislative throughput, but it cannot reasonably be equated with effective law-making.”

A similar pattern was evident in 2025, when several Bills were passed after swift debates:

Significant time spent on certain Bills 

At the other end of the spectrum, a handful of Bills consumed a large share of parliamentary time. 

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 – introduced after nationwide protests over the NEET-UG paper leak – was debated for 17 hours and 34 minutes total (10 hours 55 minutes in Lok Sabha, 6 hours 39 minutes in Rajya Sabha), followed by the the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Bill, 2026, with 11 hours and 20 minutes of discussion.

The pattern was also visible in 2025 with the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill discussed for 14 hours and 15 minutes. 

Additionally, the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was discussed for seven hours and 28 minutes in the Lok Sabha and four hours and 36 minutes in the Rajya Sabha, for a combined discussion time of 12 hours and 4 minutes. The Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2024 received 11 hours and 19 minutes across both Houses.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Mussalman Waqf (Repeal) Bill, 2024, which were discussed together in the Lower House, took 13 hours and 53 minutes in the Lok Sabha and 12 hours and 49 minutes in the Rajya Sabha, totalling 26 hours and 42 minutes. Additionally, these Bills were referred to a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) consisting of members from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for detailed scrutiny.

Adding to the discussion, Bhanu said, “There is not necessarily a disparity in the allocation of time for discussion. The amount of time a Bill receives depends partly on its importance and the nature of the legislation. Minor amendment Bills, for instance, may not require extensive debate. However, disruptions and the resulting loss of parliamentary time can create pressure on the government to pass pending legislation within the limited time available. This can come at the cost of detailed parliamentary scrutiny.”

Difference in time of scrutiny in both Houses

The figures also reveal that the two Houses can devote very different amounts of time to the same legislation. In 2026, several Bills that were discussed for only a few minutes in the Lok Sabha received considerably longer discussions in the Rajya Sabha.

How many Bills are being referred to committees? 

Parliamentary committees play an important role in strengthening legislative scrutiny by allowing MPs to examine Bills, budgets and policy issues in greater depth than is possible on the floor of the House. Meeting throughout the year, these committees can consult experts and government officials, examine technical details and provide a forum for cross-party deliberation and consensus-building. Their reports and recommendations are not binding, but they have led to changes in Bills before Parliament passes them. 

According to PRS data, no Bill was newly referred to a standing committee during the 2026 Monsoon Session, compared with five in the Monsoon Session of 2025 and one in 2024. Across the sessions examined, seven Bills were referred to standing committees in 2025, compared with three in 2024 and two in 2026 so far.

Ghose mentioned that in this Parliament session, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, while the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025 and the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, which is also known as the Criminal Neta Bill, were deferred. 

She said, “This is a success for the Opposition because we have succeeded in forcing more consultation on these highly controversial bills.”

As per a report by PRS Legislative Research on the 17th Lok Sabha, 16 percent of Bills (179 bills were passed in total) were referred to Committees for detailed scrutiny. This was lower than corresponding figures for the previous three Lok Sabhas. Four Bills were referred to Joint Parliamentary Committees, and one (the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019) to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee. Additionally, Ghose claimed that during the UPA government, nearly 60 percent of Bills were referred to Standing Committees and Parliamentary Committees. 

Newslaundry reached out to the office of Union Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju for comment. The report will be updated if and when they respond. 

*Data sourced from PRS Legislative Research

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