President prorogues both houses of Parliament after Budget session
Aug 20, 2024
New Delhi [India], August 20 : President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday prorogued both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha which were adjourned sine die on August 9, one sitting ahead of the scheduled end of the Budget session in which the newly elected Modi 3.0 government presented its Union Budget 2024-25.
The previous session of Parliament was scheduled to end on August 12 but Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House on August 9 sine die (for an indefinite period). The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned sine die on the same day.
During the session which was scheduled from July 22 to August 12, the Finance Bill was passed while a bill to amend the Waqf law was also introduced and referred to a joint committee of Parliament amid protests over its provisions.
On July 23, the second sitting of the Budget Session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament, marking a milestone. This achievement established her as the first finance minister of India to present seventh consecutive Union Budgets, surpassing Morarji Desai's previous record of six.
Morarji Desai, who served as India's finance minister from 1959 to 1964, previously held the record with five full Budgets and one interim Budget. His tenure set a longstanding benchmark in Indian financial history, maintaining the record for the highest number of budgets presented by any finance minister for over fifty years.
This was the first Budget presented during Narendra Modi's third term as Prime Minister and also the first under him in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not have a majority on its own.
