Parliament's Budget session begins on Wednesday; pending Bills listed

Opposition parties demand discussion on SIR, MGNREGA

For the Budget session of Parliament, which begins on Wednesday with the President’s Address to a joint sitting of both Houses, the government had not listed any new Bills as of Tuesday evening. 

The Lok Sabha secretariat has listed nine pending Bills, including the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill and the Securities Markets Code, which is currently with the parliamentary panel on finance for further scrutiny. 

The first part of the Budget session will adjourn for recess on February 13 to allow standing committees to examine the demands for grants of various ministries and departments and submit their reports. The session will reconvene on March 9 and is slated to end on April 2. It is scheduled to have 30 sittings — 13 in the first part and 17 in the second — spread over 65 days. 

 

At the customary all-party meeting on the eve of the session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the session will mainly be devoted to financial business relating to the Union Budget for 2026–27 and discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address. Essential legislative and other business will also be taken up, mainly during the second part of the session, he said. 

The minister said the Economic Survey will be presented to Parliament on Thursday (January 29), and the Union Budget will be presented at 11 am on Sunday (February 1). He rejected Opposition demands for discussions on the Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-GRAMG) Act and on the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) during the Budget session. Rijiju said both issues were already debated during the winter session and “we cannot reverse the gear”. 

During the meeting, Opposition members, including Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and John Brittas of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), raised concerns about the non-circulation of government business for the session. The minister said it would be shared in due course. “This is the first session of the year. Normally, the list of government business is shared after the President’s Address. However, I am prepared to share the list; I have told officers to do it,” Rijiju said. 

So far, the government has listed only nine pending Bills and no new ones. All of these Bills have been referred to parliamentary committees for scrutiny. The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill was referred to a joint committee, which has been asked to submit its report by the last day of the first half of the Budget session. The committee studying the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill must submit its report by the last day of the session, while the committee on the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill must submit its report by February 12. The select committee on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill submitted its report on December 17. 

At the all-party meeting, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by 51 members from 39 political parties, Opposition members also demanded discussions on US tariffs imposed on India, foreign policy matters, air pollution, the state of the economy, and a ban on social media for early teens. 

With Assembly polls in one Union Territory and four states scheduled for April–May, parties from those regions raised issues specific to their states. Communist Party of India leader P Sandosh Kumar said his party demanded a special fiscal correction package for Kerala to address a severe resource gap of over ₹21,000 crore. The Trinamool Congress, West Bengal’s ruling party, demanded a discussion on SIR.