Rare is the person interested in policy who has not heard of PRS, that is, PRS Legislative Research. It has had a considerable impact on our understanding of legislation and productivity of Parliament, not to speak of research support to MPs. The Constitution divides legislative powers between Union and State governments. Therefore, understanding State Legislatures and the productivity of MLAs is no less important.
Unfortunately, we do not pay that much attention to what a State does or does not do, its revenue and expenditure. In passing, many reform areas are in the State List of the Seventh Schedule or Concurrent List.
One year ago, PRS started a publication titled “Annual Review of State Laws” and we now (July 2022) have the second version for the calendar year 2021. This focuses on the legislative activity of 30 State legislatures, 28 States, plus Delhi and Puducherry. We know how much time was spent on legislation and what kind of legislation was passed. Last year’s report didn’t paint a pretty picture, and neither does this year’s report.
For both years, 2020 and 2021, low productivity can be conveniently attributed to the pandemic. While there is a grain of truth in that, it is also largely a red herring. State legislatures, despite being funded publicly, aren’t productive enough, and reports like these make citizens aware, enabling them to exert the countervailing pressure needed for better governance. In 2021, on average, assemblies met for 21 days. Should State assemblies meet for a minimum number of days every year?
Most citizens will think so, and so did the Commission set up to review the working of the Constitution. The number of days recommended by the Commission was a function of the size of the assembly. For larger States, the stipulation was 90 days. As against this, we have 21 days, and that is an average pushed up Kerala, Odisha and Karnataka. If you take these three States away, the average drops sharply.
For instance, consider the visible one of Delhi.
It met for only eight days, a feat matched by Andhra Pradesh. In both 2020 and 2021, this can be ascribed to the red herring of Covid. Perhaps one should take the average between 2016 and 2021 to net out (partly) the pandemic effect. The averages are 11 days for Tripura, 14 days for Punjab, 14 days for Haryana, 14 days for Uttarakhand and 16 days for Delhi. In some legislatures, the default is one of rarely meeting. Covid merely made it worse. Kerala and Odisha, which take legislation more seriously, are outliers. Notice that most sittings are during budget sessions. The Constitution does say there shouldn’t be a gap of more than six months between two assembly sessions. Therefore, there are monsoon and winter sessions to ensure there is compliance. But no more than that.
Don’t States decree a minimum number of sitting days? Karnataka is the only one that does this through legislation (enacted in 2005). Manipur, Odisha, Punjab and UP have sought to do this through rules. But the point is - (a) Most States don’t feel the need for any such stated minimum. (b) When there is a stated minimum, that is honoured more in the breach. In 2021, the average number of Bills passed by a State was 21, coincidentally the same as the number of sittings days.
This suggests the obvious. Legislation is meant to be taken seriously. That’s the reason State assemblies exist. But Bills are passed without scrutiny. In several States, they are passed on the day they are introduced. In fairness, a Bill may be referred to a Select Committee. If that’s done and if the Bill has been referred to a Select Committee, there is no need for it to be examined in detail in the assembly. So runs the argument. Unfortunately, that’s not true either. There are variations among States. But in general, less than 10% of Bills are referred to Committees.
Not only do assemblies not meet as much as they should, but limited examination of Bills also implies legislation passed leaves a lot to be desired in terms of quality. Plus, since legislatures do not meet, there is a preference for using the ordinance route.
Organs of State become more accountable and transparent because of countervailing pressure exerted by citizens. That’s the way it works in an indirect democracy like ours. I think the earlier work by PRS contributed towards making Parliament more accountable. We elect the government we deserve, and the government we elect is the government we deserve. Taken together, that is a paraphrasing of Joseph de Maistre and Thomas Jefferson.
To exert countervailing pressure, we need information. How many “laws” are there in India? That’s slightly difficult to answer since it depends on what we mean by “law” and how we define it. For instance, do we count an amending act separately? Having said that, there are a little less than 1000 Union-government statutes, and each State also has a little less than 1000 statutes.
That is, States are just as important as the Union government, if not more, in the matter of legislation. The first version of “Annual Review of State Laws” told us how lackadaisical States were about legislation. If that was excused because of Covid, the second version tells us this has become a habit. (The report also has a considerable amount of detail on the kind of legislation that was passed, and the subjects.)(bibek.debroy@gov.in)