Private Member Bills

Sir,
With a population as huge as India’s, where every single member of Parliament represents sixteen lakh voters, the task of voicing out the demand of people is audacious and beyond compromise. This is where the significance of a Private Member’s Bill comes into play. A private member includes members of a legislature other than the ministers, and they need not belong to the ruling party to introduce a bill. In Lok Sabha, the last two and a half hours of a sitting on every Friday are generally allotted for transaction of private members’ business that is, private members bills and private member resolution.
Despite the importance of private members bill the statistics  show that the  private member bills lie in an abysmal situation and face a drought in success since 1970. No Private Members Bill lie  has been passed by Parliament since 1970 (other than the transgender bill 2015) of the 300 odd Private Members Bills introduced in the 14th Lok Sabha, barely four percent  were discussed; 96 percent lapsed without even a single debate in the house. Indian Parliament has passed only fourteen private member bills till date which includes, ‘The Muslim Wakf bill 1952’, ‘The Code of Criminal Procedure (amendment) bill 1957′, The Hindu marriage (amendment) bill 1963’, ‘The Indian Penal Code (amendment) bill 1963’ and ‘The Supreme Court (enlargement of criminal appellate jurisdiction) bill 1968’. These bills played an important role in the Indian legal system and proved the worth of private members beyond doubt.
The Private Member Bill may not be preferred in Indian parliamentary system but they are obviously desirable in a vibrant democracy like ours. Many private member bills when introduced in the house highlight some of the important areas, which require legislative intervention for example in 14th Lok Sabha two important bills were introduced, first, ‘two time zones in country’ for the north-east states and the rest of India. Second, ‘Prohibition  on Distribution, Sale and Advertisement of online games with violent and indecent content’. Both the bills  lapsed without discussion. The Government sees any private member bill as an intrusion in its domain of legislative initiatives.  For an effective and vibrant democracy, parliament has to focus on these bills.
Yours etc….
Touqeer Haider,
The Law  school,
University of Jammu

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