Key Facts

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the Lok Sabha has stayed adjourned sine die but not prorogued for 88 days, alleging the gap was meant to allow the government to gather a two-thirds majority for the delimitation Bills. The monsoon session, adjourned sine die on 13 August, has gone the longest without prorogation; the previous record was 87 days in 2008. The presiding officer adjourns a House sine die, but only the President can end a session by proroguing it, under Article 85, which also bars a gap of more than six months between two sessions. Lok Sabha seats are readjusted after each Census by a delimitation law under Article 82.

GK Context

'Sine die' (Latin for 'without a day') means a House is adjourned without fixing a date for reassembly, while prorogation formally terminates a session under presidential notification. Until prorogation, bills pending before the House technically remain alive, which is significant for contentious legislation such as delimitation Bills. Article 85(1) requires that the gap between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next not exceed six months. Delimitation refers to the redrawing of electoral constituency boundaries, typically carried out by a Delimitation Commission after each decennial Census under Article 82.