CHAPTER 4
Prachee Mishra
“Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.”
◆ In the last few decades, similar to most other institutions, Indian legislatures have used technology to become more transparent and accessible;
◆ Overall, Parliament has made significant strides in using technology to improve its functioning;
◆ While state Assemblies publish their work on their websites, in several cases the information is not comprehensive, and not updated regularly;
◆ Currently, e-Vidhan, a national programme, is underway to digitise and make the work of state legislatures available online;
◆ Open, transparent and accessible legislatures ensure that citizens have a deeper understanding of policy issues.
Legislators pass laws, approve the government’s expenditures, hold it accountable, and represent citizens. Exercising these responsibilities and ensuring account- ability to citizens necessitates transparency of the legislature’s work. In the last few decades, similar to most other institutions, Indian legislatures have used technology to become more transparent and accessible, and also improve their functioning. This chapter discusses how Indian legislatures (both Parliament and state Assemblies) have used technology to become more effective institutions and the scope of reforms needed.
Overall, Parliament has made significant strides in using technology to improve its functioning. Parliamentary proceedings are televised live. Almost all of its work is shared on the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites – including questions and ministerial responses, debates, and schedules and reports of standing committees. A significant portion of Parliament’s secretariat’s work uses technology. Notices for questions and other interventions can be filed online, and there is an electronic voting system (for voting on the floor of the House).
On the other hand, while state Assemblies publish their work on their websites, in several cases the information is incomprehensive and not updated regularly. Other reforms needed relate to enabling Indian legislatures to make proper use of such technology. In 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and government response through emergency measures, the role of legislatures became more important than ever. During such a crisis, one would expect legislatures to scrutinise government decisions closely, authorise additional expenditure and pass urgent legislation. However, Indian legislatures (including standing committees) fell short of the mark. One of the reasons cited for this gap was certain rules of procedure that do not allow legislators to meet online. In comparison, legislatures in other countries figured out hybrid ways of meeting (a mix of physical and online presence) and ensured the smooth execution of their business.
Legislatures are one of the key pillars of our democracy. Legislators have four key roles – they discuss and pass laws, they approve the budget of the government to ensure efficient allocation of resources, they oversee the work of the government and hold the executive accountable, and represent citizens. To exercise these func- tions and hold the government accountable, legislators have various tools at their disposal. These include raising questions on policies and schemes, flagging matters of importance in the House and highlighting issues through debates. Since they exercise these functions in their role as representatives of citizens, it is important that citizens have access to the questions and responses, debates within the legis- latures and the arguments presented thereof.
In India, constitutionally mandated secretariats, which are independent of the executive, manage and facilitate the work of the legislatures. 1, 2 In the last few decades, similar to most other institutions, Indian legislatures have also used technology to make their work more transparent and accessible. With advances in technology, the work of legislatures is available in multiple formats and across forums. For example, debates that take place in Parliament are telecast live and webcast, the text of these debates is available on the website of the House con- cerned, and video clippings are also available on private websites like YouTube.
This easy availability of data in various formats and across fora helps citizens and media assess the functioning of elected representatives, and gather knowledge of government policies and work.
Two years ago, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic, following which countries across the world went into lockdown. These lockdowns limited physical and social interaction, forcing people and organisations to reorient the way they meet and work. Legislatures were no exception to this. In fact, the role of legislatures became more important during the pandemic as they had to examine the actions of the government, exam- ine the funds being allocated for relief measures and pass emergency legislation for immediate relief to citizens, apart from empowering government bodies to enforce certain COVID-19-related guidelines.
Across the world, legislatures responded to this situation in three ways. Some legislatures continued meeting in person while adhering to social distancing guide- lines; some met in a hybrid manner with some members meeting online with others physically present in legislatures, and some legislatures met entirely online. Several legislatures accelerated the pace of modernisation and digitisation during this time, which helped them manage their work online. In India, legislatures continued meeting in person while adhering to social distancing guidelines. However, both Parliament and state Assemblies met for fewer number of days in 2020 as compared to previous years. The Parliamentary committees did not meet during the lock- downs. This begs the question of what stopped Indian legislatures from meeting more regularly, and why they could not meet online or in a hybrid manner.
The use of technology in legislatures can broadly be categorised into two catego- ries. First is deploying technology to improve the functioning of the legislature itself, which is carried out by an independent secretariat. This would include informing MPs and MLAs of the agenda of the House for the day on the website or through an online app, enabling members to file questions and other notices online, preparing parliamentary documents, and making research material avail- able to them online.
The second category of technology use is in increasing public access to the work of the legislature and bringing in more transparency in its functioning. This would include publishing the debates of the House and questions asked in the House online, informing citizens about Parliamentary Committee meetings, publishing reports of the Committees and other documents and reports that are tabled in the House, and televising the proceedings of legislatures. Greater transparency allows citizens to see the work their elected representatives are doing and also gives them access to data on the government’s work and policy intent. How easily legislatures make these documents available and make them easy to understand determines their level of transparency and accessibility. This ties in with their role of being accountable to citizens.
Across both these categories, the secretariat associated with the legislature plays an important role. Article 98 of the Constitution of India provides separate secre- tarial staff to each House of Parliament. The recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to the secretarial staff of either House will be regulated by Parliament by law. Till such law is made, the President may, in consultation with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (as the case may be) make rules regarding the recruitment and conditions of service of such secretarial staff. As no such Act has been passed, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariat staff are regulated by Recruitment and Conditions of Service Rules made in 1955 and 1957 3 Article 187 of the Constitution makes similar provi- sions for an independent secretariat for state legislative Assemblies and Councils. These secretariats carry out the overall day-to-day functioning of the legislatures they are associated with. 4 They provide assistance and support for the effective functioning of either House, cater to the Parliamentary Committees associated with the respective Houses, prepare research and reference material for legislators and publish relevant material.
The increasing use of technology by the secretariats has vastly improved the functioning of Parliament and ensured that citizens get timely access to its work. For example, the official report of the proceedings of each House, i.e., debates, are prepared by the respective secretariats under the authority of the Speaker and the Chairman respectively. Rule 379 and Rule 382 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha provide for the publica- tion, printing and distribution of a full report of the proceedings of the House as directed by the Speaker. 5,6 Rule 260 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Rajya Sabha has similar provisions to publish proceedings of the House as directed by the Chairman. 7 Uncorrected verbatim reports of proceedings are usually made available on the respective House’s website (parliament.nic.in; loksabha.nic.in; rajyasabha.nic.in) on the same day of the sitting. These debates are later verified and checked and the text of the debate is also published.
Bills are available online within a few hours of their introduction in Parliament. Information on Parliament’s business for the next day along with the list of ques- tions to be raised are available online in advance. Responses to these questions and a summary of the day’s business are available online immediately. MPs also get access to the Bills, list of business for the next day and relevant research material prepared by the secretariat on the member’s portal. Live telecast of House pro- ceedings and the availability of video clippings of debates have vastly improved the ability of citizens to watch what their elected representatives are discussing and debating in the House.
This section presents a description of technology adoption in the parliament, categorised appropriately.
a. Website and library
The Parliament Library provides information on parliamentary activities, including historical data and archival records, in physical form. To bring about automation in the Parliament Library, a computer-based information retrieval system, the Parliament Library Information System (PARLIS) was launched in 1985. 8
The Parliament website (parliament.nic.in) was launched in 1996 to provide information on parliamentary activities. 9 It provided the debates and committee reports from 1998. Today, secretariats of both Houses maintain their own separate websites. These provide a rich repository of information on various topics; such as the history of the Indian Parliament, rules and procedures of both Houses, details of the business and proceedings in both Houses, details of questions, details of Bills introduced, pending in and passed by Houses, profiles of members of both Houses and their socioeconomic background and attendance of MPs in parliament.
Around 2012, suggestions were made to make the historical information in the Parliament library available online. The aim was also to create a single window for all parliamentary information. Following this, in July 2012, a one-man com- mittee chaired by S.S. Ahluwalia (a former MP at that time) was constituted to suggest ways to digitise parliamentary documents. The Parliament Digital Library was created by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, with CDAC providing support with the scanning of historical documents and NIC providing software support to develop the website. 10 The website (parliamentlibraryindia.nic.in/) was launched in December 2018.
The digital library contains historical debates from 1854 (Proceedings of the Indian Legislative Council) to 1952 including the Constituent Assembly debates. It also contains the entire text of every debate from the first sitting of the Lok Sabha (1952 onwards).Digitisation of historical debates has been primarily done by scanning the physical records. It also provides all presidential addresses in Parliament other than the Budget and prime ministerial speeches in Parliament. In addition, the reports of all Parliamentary Standing Committees and the details of work done by the Lok Sabha are also available in the digital library. Easy access to these documents gives citizens a deep understanding of the development of our legislative institutions.
b. Functioning of secretariats
The secretariats of both Houses have also automated their activities. For exam- ple, all circulars and office orders are uploaded on the intranet, which is acces- sible to all employees of the secretariats. The secretariats have also implemented an e-office system which includes an electronic file management and tracking system, knowledge management system and personnel information manage- ment system. All members are also provided with the latest computer devices. Lok Sabha members are entitled to receive up to H 3 lakh for the purchase of computers and related equipment; Rajya Sabha Members are entitled to a sum of H 1.5 lakh. 11,12
c. Television proceedings
Besides textual data, these websites provide access to video recordings of parlia- mentary proceedings. The Indian Parliament also has its own television channel called Sansad Television, where live proceedings from both Houses are broadcast. 13 This channel was created in 2021 by merging Lok Sabha Television (LSTV) and Rajya Sabha Television (RSTV).
Select parliamentary proceedings have been televised on Doordarshan since December 1989, including the live telecast of the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament at the beginning of the first session of a year. Since 1994, the Question Hour has been telecast live, with proceedings of each House beamed on alternate weeks (Question Hour in the other House would be aired on All India Radio). From the winter session of 2003, the Question Hour in both Houses started being shown live on Doordarshan and Doordarshan News.
In December 2004, two dedicated satellite channels were launched to live telecast proceedings of both Houses of Parliament. 14 LSTV started operating as a 24-hour channel in July 2006. RSTV was launched in 2011. This shift was important as these channels were created to be independent of Doordarshan (which is the government’s public broadcaster) and were operated by the respec- tive Houses. These channels also work on the principles of a public broadcaster to ensure that citizens are aware of the workings of Parliament. The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 was amended to make it compul- sory for every cable operator in the country to carry parliamentary channels on their cable network. 15
Both Houses also have their own YouTube channels now, managed by Sansad TV. These channels also carry archival videos. The Sansad TV website (sansadtv. nic.in) also provides video clippings of discussions in both Houses, Question Hour, Zero Hour (where matters of public importance are raised) and speeches made by the Speaker of Lok Sabha, the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Prime Minister in each House.
d. Social media
The Lok Sabha Secretariat is fairly active on Twitter (@LokSabhaSectt) where it shares details of the Speaker’s engagements and details of the work of Standing Committees (such as meetings scheduled). The Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE), which trains MPs, parliamentary staff and other institutions in parliamentary procedures, the various disciplines of parliamentary institutions, processes and procedures, also has an active presence on Twitter (@LokSabha_PRIDE). The Speaker has an active presence on social media where details of his meetings and public engagements are shared. Several state Assemblies and Assembly Speaker offices (such as Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha) also use social media to inform citi- zens of their work. This is in addition to the presence on webcasting platforms such as YouTube where proceedings of Parliament and the various Assemblies are available.
An active online presence across mediums and ensuring updated information is available to citizens shows that legislatures are engaging with a broader range of people. Legislatures actively pushing out information also bring in a wider audience to engage with, rather than only those who are seeking information on them.
At a virtual meeting of the presiding officers of state legislatures of India, held in April 2020, the Speaker of Lok Sabha noted that during the pandemic, the Parliament made optimum use of technology to improve its functioning. 16 More than 90 per cent of notices related to questions or matters raised under various rules were received online.
Technology and State Assemblies
Similar to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, secretariats exist at the state level too. In several states, 100 per cent of the secretariat’s work is being done in a digital mode. In the 2021 meeting of presiding officers, the Lok Sabha Speaker also noted that the pace of digitisation has been accelerated in state Assemblies (and Councils). 17 Several Assemblies have also installed digital/touchscreens for members. However, Assemblies lag behind the Parliament in terms of technol- ogy adoption and require additional efforts to transform into more accessible legislative bodies. Most Assembly websites provide only a basic level of infor- mation on work.
The Speaker of Lok Sabha noted that a Committee had been constituted to look into the possibility of providing the proceedings of Legislative Assemblies and Parliament on a single platform. 18 The Committee has submitted its report. Following discussions with the central and state governments based on the report, work on the suggested platform is likely to begin.
State Assemblies also do not fare well with respect to the telecast of House proceedings. Twenty-one Assemblies telecast all or part of their proceedings. These include the states of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh. The Kerala Assembly has its own TV channel. Proceedings of certain states such as Goa and Maharashtra are webcast on YouTube. The Bihar Assembly webcasts select proceedings on YouTube.Assam, Haryana, Punjab and Telangana allow private news channels to telecast proceed- ings. Karnataka, Delhi, Bihar and Kerala have their own websites to webcast their daily proceedings. The Tamil Nadu Assembly started a live telecast of its proceedings in January 2022. The Odisha Assembly launched its official YouTube channel in March 2022.However, these are exceptions rather than the rule, as opposed to the Parliament where proceedings of both Houses are telecast live on dedicated channels.
It might be pertinent to note that televising all parliamentary proceedings has not been an easy policy shift. Concerns were raised earlier that televising pro- ceedings could alter the behaviour of legislators. However, Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker of the 14 th Lok Sabha, noted that in a democracy it is essential for citi- zens to see how their representatives are working. 19 He incidentally was the man who initiated the live telecast of Lok Sabha proceedings There have been issues with cost also. For example, in 2015, the Tamil Nadu government informed the Madras High Court that they did not have funds to televise the Assembly’s proceedings.
Legislative bodies are representative institutions, and in a well-functioning democracy, their work should be easily accessible to citizens. Live broadcast of the proceedings of legislatures is one of the ways to keep citizens informed about the issues being raised by their elected representatives and the work of legislative institutions.
E-Vidhan
Currently, e-Vidhan, a national programme to digitise and make the work of state legislatures available online is underway.E-Vidhan is a centrally sponsored scheme that seeks to make the state/UT legislatures paperless. It also seeks to assist MLAs and MLCs in the use of the latest ICT tools, to help them prepare for better and more effective participation in legislative debates.Till March 2021, MoUs had been signed with 15 states to implement NeVA. 20 And the 2022-23 Union Budget allocated H 40 crores to the National eVidhan Application (NeVA). 21
The objectives of e-Vidhan include: (i) back-end computerisation of all branches of the state legislature secretariats, (ii) business process re-engineering of identified services and their processes, (iii) capacity building of state legislators and officials of state secretariats, and (iv) information dissemination through public portals to ensure transparency and accountability. 22 The application software will be hosted on the National Cloud (Meghraj), and state legislatures will be integrated as per technical specifications and e-governance standards. Processes and work that will be automated or done in an electronic manner under e-Vidhan include: (i) papers related to the daily business of the Assembly, (ii) preparation of verbatim debates,
(iii) submission and processing of all questions and notices, (iv) laying of all papers and reports, (v) management of Bills, assurances made by the government on the floor of the Assembly, Committee work, (vi) members’ portal and amenities for members, and (vii) webcasting of Assembly proceedings. Further phases of the scheme will include the creation of digital archives, automation of the library and grievance redressal.
The progress with digitisation varies across states. For example, Himachal Pradesh implemented several technology solutions under e-Vidhan back in 2014.Since then, records of all Assembly proceedings have been maintained online. Under this system, members can also exercise their votes over motions in the Assembly by pressing buttons at their seats. The Maharashtra Assembly enabled online filing of questions and notices for members in 2015. Tamil Nadu provides some archival information since its first Assembly in 1952 and certain details of work taken on and completed since 1962. It also provides details of certain debates in the House, such as Budget discussions from recent years. Kerala, too, is moving towards becoming a paperless assembly. Legislators are provided touchscreens at their seats and questions and submissions can be filed online. The Assembly’s website also publishes questions to be asked in advance, unedited proceedings of the Assembly, the text of Bills passed, and reports of Assembly’s Committees.
However, several other state websites provide very basic information on work. They do not provide details of the questions asked and the responses to the same, and the text of the debates held in the Assembly. They also do not feature the text of Bills that were passed, the discussion on these Bills and details of whether members flagged issues with these Bills or moved any amendments to them.
The advances in ICT have changed the way people and institutions work and communicate with each other. The technology ensures easy and quick availability of information for citizens. Open, transparent and accessible legislatures ensure that citizens have a deeper understanding of policy issues and that the engagement between citizens and their elected representatives goes beyond just the election cycles.
Technology has also made it easier for our legislative institutions to quickly communicate with a wider audience. This has also helped elected representatives immensely as they are able to keep in touch with their constituents, inform them of their work and get democratic processes documented. However, this has also placed an expectation on our legislatures to keep up with instant demands for information. They are expected to be available and responsive and engage with citizens in a more open manner.
Legislatures have not been immune to these changes and have largely adapted to the changes brought in by technological advancements.However, there is scope to improve the way our legislatures use technology.
As discussed earlier, the Indian Parliament has been quite efficient in terms of publishing information in a timely manner. However, most state Assemblies have been lagging in this area. While several states have started publishing more
information and data over the last few years, there is immense scope for improve- ment. First, states do not publish all the information; second, there is a significant delay in publishing the information.
For example, Andhra Pradesh has a fairly up-to-date website with detailed information on the sittings of the House, the list of Bills passed (along with the text), and the short-duration discussions held up until the last concluded ses- sion. However, they do not publish data on questions. UP publishes all questions (starred and unstarred), including the ministers’ responses to the questions. It also provides details on all the papers tabled in the Assembly, and details of the work carried out in each session (including attendance of the Members). The Chhattisgarh Assembly provides some statistical information (such as number of questions filed) for ongoing sessions. The Madhya Pradesh Assembly provides the text of debates, details of questions and responses, text of Bills introduced and passed, and statistics on the work done by the Assembly, up until the last session. The Himachal Pradesh Assembly publishes the details of the daily business to be conducted and each day’s proceedings during the session, similar to Parliament. The Kerala Assembly also publishes some details such as questions to be asked.
On the other hand, the Odisha Assembly’s website provides the details of Bills and Ordinances till 2009. The details of the questions are available till February 2019.The Tamil Nadu Assembly’s website provides details of debates till the last session ofFebruary 2021.While Assemblies have been updating their systems and publishing information on their work online, there are still gaps across states and the updation is ad hoc.
It may be noted that state Assemblies in India meet for fewer days than Parliament, pass Bills quickly without much deliberation and have been compar- atively less transparent with respect to their work. Assemblies that meet for longer and have Committees to examine Bills and other policy matters, tend to be better in communicating their work to the public. The timely availability of legislative documents and records for both legislators and the public is essential for achieving greater legislative transparency and accountability, as well as efficiency in parlia- mentary processes.
Currently, most of the information provided by both Parliament and Assemblies is in PDF format. Often these documents are scans of printed or hand-written pages, which are not machine-readable. The other challenge that these records present is language. Most state documents are in their regional language, with a few providing English translations. This is an issue in Parliament also where uncorrected debates are published in Hindi or regional languages. This restricts the audience that can read and understand these documents.
Data available to the public should be in a format that is easily accessible and can be reused.While publishing documents in PDF format makes them easy to share, and allows greater security, these may not be the easiest to reuse. It may be useful to publish data in an XML format, which can then be reused. It would also be useful to provide translation of records so that a wider audience is able to access and understand these documents.
While the Indian Parliament puts out all work-related information on its web- site, the information may not be easily understood by a wider audience. For example, when it comes to the law-making process in Parliament, the informa- tion related to a Bill is available at different places on the website. The legislation section has the Bill text, the debate section has the text of the debate on the Bill and amendments moved, the Standing Committee page has the report on the Bill, and the House business section has information on voting on the Bill (if any). Discussions on the Bill in the other House are available on the website concerned. So while Parliament is providing a lot of detailed information on a Bill, it is not put out in a way that necessarily makes this information easily accessible for citizens.
Adding details like the comments received on a draft Bill, the Bill introduced in a House and the various amendments it went through, the government’s explainer on the Bill and proposed amendments, the debates on the Bill, the Standing Committee’s report on the Bill, the rules and regulations notified under the Bill, and the overall legislative history of a Bill in one place in a cohesive manner would vastly improve a citizen’s understanding of law.
While the volume of information made available matters in ensuring that cit- izens have access to all the information they need, it is also important to think about how accessible the information is and if citizens can easily understand the data and use it. The common citizen may not be aware of all parliamentary proce- dures and may not know where to look for specific information.While the Indian Parliament is fairly transparent about its work, it has different departments that are responsible for specific tasks, and putting information in an intuitive form for citizens is not their responsibility. This function of making parliamentary infor- mation easy to understand for citizens has not been envisaged under the current secretariats’ functions. To ensure that data put out by Parliament is presented in a cohesive and easy-to-understand manner and also linked to useful government documents, a digital services office or an ombudsman could be created.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments all over the world announced lockdowns to reduce physical interaction between people. This affected the work- ing of legislatures, especially at a time when their work of examining the work of the government and holding them accountable became extremely important. While most parliaments use ICT to manage their day-to-day functioning, the use of technology became key to running parliaments safely and efficiently given social distancing guidelines. Parliaments across the world innovated in how they met, how they worked and how they communicated with citizens.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) World e-Parliament report, by the end of 2020, 33 per cent of the parliaments surveyed had held virtual or hybrid plenary meetings, and 65 per cent had held virtual or hybrid committee meetings. 23 Fifty-five per cent of parliaments reported that their members could work remotely, and 69 per cent reported that their staff could work remotely.
During the pandemic, legislatures in India continued with physical meetings. This was largely achieved by both Houses sitting in shifts, ensuring social distanc- ing by allotting seats to members in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha galleries, establishing digital workspaces, and investing in an IT strategy. However, with social distancing guidelines and the spread of the COVID-19 waves, physical sessions were cut short. Note that in 2020, Parliament met only for 33 days. The last time it met for fewer than 50 days was in 2008, when the number was 46 days. Among Assemblies, 19 states (for which data was available) met for an average of 18 days in the year. The Parliamentary Committees barely met through the lockdowns.
The Indian Parliament did not meet online or in a hybrid manner, and barring one occasion, Parliamentary Committees also did not meet online. The Rules and Procedures that dictate the day-to-day functioning of our Parliament do not require MPs to convene physically only in their respective Houses. According to Rule 11 of the Rules and Procedures of Lok Sabha, a sitting of the House is duly constituted when it is presided over by the Speaker or any other member compe- tent to preside over a sitting of the House under the Constitution or these rules. 24 The Rajya Sabha Rules have similar provisions regarding sittings of the Upper House. 25 Besides this, the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman have complete discretion with respect to running the respective Houses. Considering that online sittings of the House are something not specified in the Rules, both the Speaker and the Chairman have residuary powers to decide on matters not specified in these Rules. 26,27
With respect to Parliamentary Committees, Rule 267 of the Rules and Procedures of Lok Sabha says that Committee meetings have to be held within the precincts of the Parliament House. 28 However, the Rule also states that if it becomes necessary to conduct the meeting outside Parliament precincts, the Speaker has the power to decide it. Rule 81 of the Rajya Sabha Rules places sim- ilar restrictions for Select Committees. 29 Therefore, it may be argued that both the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman have the power to allow sittings of Committees to be held outside Parliament precincts. There is also the question of ensuring the privacy of Committee meetings. Rule 266 of the Lok Sabha Rules states that all committee meetings must be held in private. 30 While security breaches may pose a problem in ensuring the privacy of these meetings if held online, significant technological solutions could be used to address such security concerns, given the limited number of users (788 MPs plus Committee officials).
Note that Committees do meet outside Parliament precincts when they go on study tours. During the pandemic, Parliament and Committees did make some changes to long-standing procedures with the help of technology.For exam- ple, the Joint Committee on Salary and Allowances of Members of Parliament (Chair: Lok Sabha MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi) met online in April 2020. The Committee met to recommend a 30 per cent cut in the Constituency Allowance and Office Expenses Allowance given to MPs. However, this is not a Standing Committee of the Parliament. The Joint Committee was constituted to frame rules under the Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament Act, 1954. The Standing Committee on Labour also considered and adopted the Draft Report on the Industrial Relations Code, 2019, through digital mode. 31 The report was circulated to MPs on the Committee by uploading it on the Members’ portal and sending a copy by email. Another instance was when Parliament launched a mobile app in September 2020 (before the first session held during the pandemic) for MPs to mark their attendance digitally, instead of signing a physical register.
During the pandemic, a combination of technology, social distancing and reduced physical presence helped legislatures across the world to continue their work. Spain, Brazil, Norway and Finland, for instance, amended their laws to make room for remote sittings. 32 The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies introduced a hybrid plenary format on 25 March 2020, and hosted 513 MPs. Brazil also updated its system to provide secure authentication of members and voting. 33 The Chilean Senate passed a law to allow the use of video conferencing technology to conduct its affairs. In Indonesia and the Maldives, a sitting of the parliaments happened remotely. In the UK, the House of Commons Commission recom- mended a hybrid model of virtual and physical presence for plenary meetings. The UK Parliament gave its nod to remote committee sittings. The New Zealand Parliament set up a special committee that scrutinised the work of the government during the pandemic through remote sittings. 34
The other key challenge with holding online or hybrid plenary sessions is vot- ing on motions by members. In India, most of the voting in Parliament is done through a voice vote, barring a few instances when recorded voting is mandated. While recorded voting in the House is electronic, it requires MPs to be seated at their designated desks. During the pandemic, there were a few instances of recorded voting. However, since MPs were sitting across both Houses (including the visitors’ galleries) and not at their designated places, votes were collected on paper slips. Countries that shifted to online or hybrid modes developed ways and means to allow online voting. Spain, Brazil and the UK developed a voting function as part of internal apps for members. 35 Argentina, Chile, Latvia and Zambia developed apps for voting. In these cases, voter verification was managed in several ways, including biometrics and two-factor authentication, and the use of national identity cards. 36
The IPU’s report also noted that the modernisation of parliaments accelerated during the pandemic, and parliamentary institutions became more agile, adopting new solutions and pivoting quickly to adapt to the changing situation. 37 Several parliaments amended their regulations to support remote working, allowing more flexible work arrangements. It also noted that parliaments reported accelerating the use of cloud-based apps and data storage, and increased their budget for the purpose of integrating ICT in their functioning.Since 2018, the use of cloud- based applications and data storage has increased by 86 per cent.
The IPU recommended that parliaments should continue to modernise their core operations. They must amend their regulations or governing procedures to ensure that they can function seamlessly without being tied to one physical loca- tion. They should allow for more flexible participation by both members such as remote participation in plenary and committee sittings. Citizen participation should also be expanded and made flexible, especially in the working of the com- mittees. Flexible work arrangements should be developed for staff.
According to the Journal of Parliamentary Information (September 2021), to promote the use of ICT, the Parliament secretariats including the Parliamentary Committees have been encouraged to use SMS and the e-portal for circulation of information related to sittings, circulation of agenda papers including back- ground notes, draft reports, etc. 38 During a virtual meeting of presiding officers in April 2020, the Lok Sabha Speaker urged the states to explore the feasibility of using digital technology to carry out their legislative and financial work and other routine tasks. 39
While digital technologies can help make legislatures more open, transparent and accessible, concerns have also been raised that online meetings are not the ideal substitute for face-to-face debate and discussion. Technical glitches, poor usability and lack of technical skills among members can hamper the process. Online systems are also prone to security risks, though these can be mitigated to a large extent. These can also help members attend and participate in dis- cussions from remote constituencies, thereby addressing some issues of poor attendance. Online Committee meetings will allow them to gather evidence from experts from across the world, thereby enriching the consultation process. While these online systems may not entirely replace existing systems, they can be a useful value addition to the current processes of how legislatures work, as amply elucidated in this chapter.
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Editors’ Comments Having seen the story of technology in Indian legislatures, it is only natural that attention now shifts to the administrative and governance side of things. The two major segments there are land administration and taxation. In fact, both are also major drivers of caseload in the judiciary. Accordingly, the next two chapters of this part of the volume deal with technology in land adminis- tration and taxation respectively. |
References