The government is yet to disclose the agenda for the session, but parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said there will be five sittings.

“Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to have fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” he added in a post on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the lead-up to the centenary of India’s independence in 2047.

The agenda will be finalized after the end of the 8-10 September G-20 Leaders Summit, government officials familiar with the matter said. “The government has the prerogative of calling the session. Since the government has decided to call a special session, it has made a formal announcement today. The agenda will also be subsequently announced,” one of the officials added.

The decision to convene a session of Parliament rests with the government and is taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs with a presidential notification following the cabinet committee’s decisions.

The official cited above declined to comment on whether any urgent bills could be introduced for passage during the special session.

A senior official in the parliamentary affairs ministry said the agenda will be finalized next week and may include “a discussion on a key issue and a few bills”.

A National Democratic Alliance leader ruled out the possibility of a Uniform Civil Code bill being introduced. “There is no plan whatsoever to bring a UCC bill now,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The women’s reservation bill has been part of the BJP’s manifesto for a long time, people aware of the developments said.

They added that the government, having announced a slew of schemes for women’s welfare, might want to burnish its credentials and woo a demographic that is fast gaining electoral heft.

Earlier, a special session of Rajya Sabha was held in February 1977 for two days for the extension of the President’s Rule in Tamil Nadu and Nagaland under the second proviso to article 356(4). Another two-day special session (158th Session) was held June, 3 in 1991 for approval of the President’s Rule in Haryana, under the proviso to article 356(3). As per the Rajya Sabha records, on both these occasions the Upper House met when the Lok Sabha was under dissolution.

During the UPA era, a special session of Lok Sabha was called in July 2008 for a trust vote after the Left parties withdrew support from the Manmohan Singh government.

Past governments have called many special sittings of the Houses to commemorate the Constitution Day, Quit India Movement and other special occasions.

In 2017, the then Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral in a private member Bill suggested the introduction of special session in addition to the existing three sessions to compensate for the hours unutilised due to disruptions.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi dubbed the government’s decision to call a special session as out of “panic”. “I think maybe it is an indicator of a little panic. Same type of panic that happened when I spoke in Parliament House,” he said in Mumbai.

Updated: 31 Aug 2023, 11:00 PM IST