Sessions, Adjournment Sine Die, and Prorogation (Article 85)

Parliament does not sit all year. It meets in blocks of time called sessions. Article 85 of the Constitution says who calls Parliament to meet, who ends a session, and the longest gap allowed between two sessions. The President summons (calls) each House to meet, and the President prorogues (formally ends) a session. The President can also dissolve the Lok Sabha. All three are done on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers.

Why does it exist?

A democracy needs its Parliament to meet often, so that the government answers questions, laws are debated and money is approved. Without a rule, a government could avoid Parliament for a long time. So the Constitution fixes an outer limit. At the same time, MPs cannot sit every day; they also need time in their constituencies and for committee work. Sessions balance both needs.

What does Article 85 say?

• Article 85(1): The President shall summon each House to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit, but six months shall not pass between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next. In simple words, Parliament must meet at least twice a year.
• Article 85(2)(a): The President may prorogue the Houses or either House.
• Article 85(2)(b): The President may dissolve the Lok Sabha.
• Article 174 has the same rules for state legislatures, where the Governor summons, prorogues and dissolves.

Where did it come from?

The idea comes from the Government of India Act, 1935, which required the legislature to meet at least once a year. The original Article 85 of 1950 said Parliament must be summoned "twice at least in every year", with a six-month maximum gap. The First Amendment Act, 1951 rewrote Articles 85 and 174 and dropped the "twice every year" wording, keeping only the six-month rule. This avoided confusion over whether a calendar year without two sittings broke the Constitution.

The four words students mix up

Think of a school. A class break for lunch is like an adjournment. Ending the school day without fixing the next class time is like adjournment sine die. The principal formally closing the term is prorogation. Closing the batch for good, so a new batch must be admitted, is dissolution.

• Adjournment: The Presiding Officer (Speaker or Chairman) pauses a sitting for some hours or days. The session continues.
• Adjournment sine die: "Sine die" is Latin for "without a day". The Presiding Officer ends the sittings without fixing a date to meet again. This is how a session's sittings usually end.
• Prorogation: The President, on the government's advice, formally ends the session itself. It usually comes a few days after adjournment sine die, sometimes the same day.
• Dissolution: The end of the House's life. Only the Lok Sabha can be dissolved (Article 85(2)(b)), either at the end of its five-year term or earlier. The Rajya Sabha is a permanent House and is never dissolved; one-third of its members retire every second year.

How does it work in practice?

There is no fixed calendar in the Constitution. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs decides the dates, and the President issues the summons. By convention, Parliament meets three times a year:

• Budget Session: roughly late January/February to April/May (the longest)
• Monsoon Session: roughly July to August/September
• Winter Session: roughly November to December

What happens on prorogation?

• Bills do not lapse. Under Article 107(3), a Bill pending in Parliament does not die just because a House is prorogued.
• Most pending notices lapse. Notices of questions, motions and resolutions that were given but not yet taken up end, and must be given again in the next session. Business already moved in the House carries forward.
• Only the President can call the House again. After prorogation, a fresh summons from the President is needed. But if a House is only adjourned sine die and not prorogued, the session is technically still alive, and the Presiding Officer can call a sitting at short notice without a new summons.
• Ordinance power opens up. Under Article 123, the President can issue an ordinance (a temporary law) only when both Houses are not in session. If only one House is in session, an ordinance is still possible. An ordinance must be placed before Parliament when it meets again and stops working six weeks after Parliament reassembles, unless approved earlier.

What happens on dissolution of the Lok Sabha?

(Article 107)

• A Bill pending in the Lok Sabha, or passed by the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha, lapses.
• A Bill pending in the Rajya Sabha that the Lok Sabha has not passed does not lapse.
• A Bill for which the President has already notified a joint sitting (Article 108) does not lapse.

What have the courts said?

• D.C. Wadhwa v. State of Bihar (1986-87): The Supreme Court struck down the practice of repeatedly re-issuing ordinances in Bihar (about 256 ordinances between 1967 and 1981), calling it a misuse of an emergency power.
• Krishna Kumar Singh v. State of Bihar (2017): A seven-judge bench held that re-promulgating ordinances without placing them before the legislature is a "fraud on the Constitution".
• Nabam Rebia v. Deputy Speaker (2016): A Constitution Bench held that a Governor must summon, prorogue or dissolve the Assembly on the advice of the Council of Ministers, not on his own, so long as the government has a majority.
• State of Punjab v. Principal Secretary to the Governor (2023): The Supreme Court held that since the Punjab Assembly had been adjourned sine die but not prorogued, the Speaker could validly reconvene it. But the Court also questioned the practice of keeping a session alive indefinitely by not proroguing it.

India's experience

In the first two decades after independence, the Lok Sabha sat for a little over 120 days a year on average. In the last decade, this has fallen to about 70 days or fewer. Sometimes, session timing has been linked to ordinance-making. For example, in 2016, the Rajya Sabha was prorogued between the two parts of the Budget Session, and the Enemy Property ordinance was re-issued several times during the year.

Commonly confused concepts

• Session vs sitting: A session is the whole period from the first meeting to prorogation. A sitting is one day's meeting (or part of a day) within a session.
• Adjournment sine die vs prorogation: Adjournment sine die is done by the Presiding Officer and ends the sittings. Prorogation is done by the President and ends the session.
• Prorogation vs dissolution: Prorogation ends a session; the House continues to exist. Dissolution ends the House itself and only applies to the Lok Sabha.
• Article 85 vs Article 87: Article 85 is about summoning, prorogation and dissolution. Article 87 is about the President's Special Address at the start of the first session after each general election and the first session of every year.
• Article 85 vs Article 174: Same rules, but 85 is for Parliament (President) and 174 is for state legislatures (Governor).

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Too few sittings: Parliament now sits far fewer days than in the 1950s. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC, 2002) suggested a minimum number of sitting days each year (widely cited as 120 for the Lok Sabha and 100 for the Rajya Sabha).
• No deadline for prorogation: No rule fixes how soon a House must be prorogued after it is adjourned sine die. Long delays keep a session technically alive. Critics say this can let the government call a short sitting at very short notice, while supporters say it gives flexibility to handle urgent business.
• Prorogation and ordinances: Ending a session early to issue ordinances is criticised as bypassing debate.
• Executive control of the calendar: Since the government decides when Parliament meets, critics argue the Opposition has little say. Private members' Bills have proposed a fixed annual calendar and a minimum number of sittings.
• A comparison from abroad: In the UK, in R (Miller) v. Prime Minister (2019), the UK Supreme Court held a five-week prorogation unlawful because it stopped Parliament from doing its job without good reason.
• Way forward suggested by experts: a fixed parliamentary calendar, a minimum number of sitting days, a time limit for prorogation after adjournment sine die, and a written statement of reasons for every ordinance.

Concepts to Know

• Summoning: The President's formal order calling the members of a House to meet on a given date and place.
• Presiding Officer: The person who runs the House: the Speaker in the Lok Sabha and the Chairman (the Vice-President) in the Rajya Sabha.
• Ordinance: A temporary law issued by the President (Article 123) or a Governor (Article 213) when the legislature is not sitting and immediate action is needed.
• Council of Ministers: The Prime Minister and all ministers. The President acts on their advice (Article 74).
• Lapse of a Bill: When a Bill "dies" and must be introduced again from the start.
• Special session: A session called for a specific purpose outside the usual three sessions. It is still a normal session under Article 85; the Constitution does not use the term.