NEW DELHI: The tumultuous Budget Session of Parliament, which began on January 31, 2025, has come to a close with both Houses being adjourned sine die on Friday. Some of the key legislations passed during the session include the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Finance Bill 2025, and the Immigration and Foreigners Bill. Both houses will now reconvene during the Monsoon session of Parliament, though the dates have not been announced yet.
Ten government bills were introduced, and 16 bills were passed during the session.
Both the Houses saw heated marathon debates during the passage of the Waqf (Amendment Bill) 2025, with the sessions extending to the wee hours of Thursday and Friday.
The House also made record on April 3 during the Zero Hour, with 202 MPs raising matters of public importance. The Zero Hour was extended to five hours in the Lok Sabha on the initiative of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. In the past, 161 MPs had spoken during the extended Zero Hour on July 18, 2019.
Other highlights of the session include the debates on Manipur, which took place in the dead of night. Despite protests from the Opposition, the discussion on the statutory resolution on the proclamation of President’s Rule in Manipur was taken up in Lok Sabha at 2 am on Thursday for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha took up the discussion at 2.37 am on April 4 for one-and-a-half hours.. According to Article 356, the President’s Rule needs to be approved by both Houses of Parliament within two months of its imposition.
On Friday, as soon as the House met at noon after an adjournment over remarks by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla read out his valedictory remarks and adjourned the House sine die. He said as many as 16 bills were passed during the session, and the House productivity was pegged at over 118 per cent.
“We are at the end of the fourth session of the 18th Lok Sabha. This session started on January 31, 2025. In this session, we had 26 sittings, and the total number was about 118 percent,” Birla said.
As he spoke, opposition members were raising slogans against Birla’s observation against Gandhi that her claim that the Waqf Amendment Bill was bulldozed without discussion was unfortunate and against the dignity of the House.
During the session, the government completed its budgetary exercise after the Lok Sabha gave its nod to the demands for grants for the various ministries as well as the Finance Bill. The budget for Manipur, under central rule, was also cleared.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, during his valedictory remarks, noted that the house functioned for 159 hours, bringing its productivity to 119 percent.