The budget session of parliament turned out to be partially productive for the BJP-led government as it could get the bill to create a judicial appointment commission passed but had to relent to the Congress' demand for referring the bill for hiking FDI in insurance to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha.
The session, which began July 7 and lasted for over a month, saw exchanges between the treasury benches and the opposition on a range of issues including communal incidents in the country.
The Congress' desire for leader of opposition status in the Lok Sabha for Mallikarjun Kharge could not materialise in view of Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's unwillingness to accede to the demand.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government outlined its economic agenda in the budget speech of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that sought to boost growth and curb borrowing.
Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda unveiled the new government's plans for bullet trains.
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The Narendra Modi government put a lot of political capital on getting the insurance laws amendment bill passed but could not do so in view of its lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha.
The government finally agreed to the Congress demand to send the bill to the select committee which is expected to give its report during the winter session of parliament.
The bill seeks to hike foreign direct investment in the insurance sector to 49 percent.
The session saw election of AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai as deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha.
It also witnessed Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi leading a protest and going near Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's podium for the first time to demand a discussion on the communal incidents.
While the two houses witnessed disruptions during their sittings spread over 27 days, they made up for the lost time by sitting till late.
"Broad statistics suggest that productivity of the Lok Sabha has significantly improved in respect of working hours and the time lost in comparison to that of 2004 and 2009," Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very happy with the functioning of parliament.
Naidu also gave credit to the opposition for the issues taken up and legislations passed.
Officials said 12 bills were passed during the budget session, including the finance bills.
Two bills seeking to end the collegium system for appointment of judges were passed on the last day of the session Thursday, with the Rajya Sabha giving its nod following passage by the Lok Sabha earlier.
The Constitution (99th Amendment) Bill seeks to put the proposed judicial appointment commission and its entire composition in the constitution and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 lays down the procedure to be followed for appointment and transfer of high court and supreme court judges.
According to PRS Legislative, which tracks working of parliament, the Lok Sabha worked for 104 percent of the time, while the Rajya Sabha worked for 106 percent of it scheduled time, discussing a slew of issues including working of several ministries.
The Lok Sabha spent 12 percent of its time discussing legislations and passed six of 14 bills introduced in the house.
Three of bills passed replaced ordinances - the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, and the TRAI (Amendment) Bill.
PRS Legislative said the Lok Sabha has 314 first-time members of whom 246 participated in debates during the session.
However, participation of younger members was less frequent in debates than others.
"Members up to the age of 40 years participated in 11 percent of the debates in the Lok Sabha. In contrast, MPs in the age group of 41-60 years participated in 64 percent of the debates," PRS Legislative said.
The government appeared to give thrust for getting legislations passed in the last fortnight of the session after the cabinet cleared a slew of bills, including the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014, which proposes treating minors older than 16 years as adults if charged with serious crimes such as rape.
