Context

A member in Rajya Sabha appeared to abandon his plan of introducing a private member’s Bill on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), a code that would be applicable to all religious communities in personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption.

What is a private member’s Bill?

• A private member’s Bill is different from a government Bill and is piloted by an MP who is not a minister.
• Individual MPs may introduce private member’s Bill to draw the government’s attention to what they might see as issues requiring legislative intervention.
• An MP who is not a minister is a private member and while both private members and ministers take part in the lawmaking process, Bills introduced by private members are referred to as private member’s Bills and those introduced by ministers are called government Bills.
• Government Bills are backed by the government and also reflect its legislative agenda.
• The admissibility of a private Bill is decided by the Chairman in the case of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker in the case of the Lok Sabha.
• Before the Bill can be listed for introduction, the Member must give at least a month’s notice, for the House Secretariat to examine it for compliance with constitutional provisions and rules on legislation.
• While a government Bill can be introduced and discussed on any day, a private member’s bill can only be introduced and discussed on Fridays.

Has a private member’s bill ever become a law?

• As per PRS Legislative, no private member’s Bill has been passed by Parliament since 1970.
• To date, Parliament has passed 14 such Bills, six of them in 1956.
• In the 14th Lok Sabha, of the over 300 private member’s Bills introduced, roughly four per cent were discussed; the remaining 96 per cent lapsed without a single dialogue.
• The selection of Bills for discussion is done through a ballot.