PRS Report Flags Issues in State Legislatures, Key Issues

Why in the News?: The PRS Annual Review of State Laws 2025 revealed that Indian state legislatures passed over 600 Bills in 2025, with nearly 30% of them cleared on the very day of introduction. While legislative productivity increased compared to 2024, the report highlights serious concerns regarding legislative scrutiny, deliberation, and institutional functioning in state assemblies.

Key Issues Highlighted by the PRS Report

Key Issues Highlighted by the PRS Report

PRS Annual Review of State Laws 2025 is a report by PRS Legislative Research that analyses the functioning of state legislatures in India, including sittings, bills passed, budget scrutiny, and institutional performance across 27 states and UTs. The report flags following issues in the working of State Legislatures: 

• Decline in Quality of Legislative Deliberation: State legislatures passed over 600 Bills, but nearly 30% were passed on the same day of introduction, limiting scrutiny and debate.
• Low Sitting Days and Limited Legislative Time:  State assemblies functioned for an average of only 24 days in 2025, with some states like Nagaland meeting for just 7 days. 
  • Some states have established minimum targets for annual sitting days, either through legislation or the Rules governing their procedures. Barring Himachal Pradesh, no state met its prescribed target.
  • In 2025, Legislative Councils met for an average of 26 days, ranging from 11 days in Telangana to 38 days in Maharashtra.
• Symbolic Compliance with Constitutional Provisions: Although all states technically complied with Article 174 (six-month gap between two sessions), many did so through minimal or token sittings, for example: 
  • Assam: One-day session between March and November
  • Gujarat: Three-day session after March adjournment
  • Meghalaya: Nearly six-month gap between sessions
• Working Hours of State Legislatures: On average, state assemblies met for 133 hours, and there was a wide variation in sitting duration across states. Maharashtra met for nine hours per sitting while West Bengal met for three hours. 
• Weak Committee System and Scrutiny Mechanisms: Very few Bills are referred to committees, with most legislatures bypassing detailed examination. 
  • In 2025, in the six states for which data was available, only 5% of Bills introduced were referred to committees.
  • This reduces expert scrutiny, public consultation, and evidence-based law-making, weakening legislative quality.
• Executive Dominance over Legislatures: Law-making is increasingly executive-driven, with legislatures often functioning as approving bodies rather than deliberative institutions ensuring accountability and checks on the executive.
• Weak Budget Scrutiny: State legislatures spend only 8 days on budget discussions on average. Unlike Parliament, most states lack detailed committee-based examination of ministry budgets, leading to limited scrutiny and rushed financial discussion.
• Vacancy in Deputy Speaker Post: Article 178 of the Constitution requires every Legislative Assembly to elect a Speaker and Deputy Speaker as soon as possible. 
  • However, as of May 2026, eight states and UTs did not have a Deputy Speaker. 
  • In Jharkhand, the post has remained vacant for over 20 years, while the current Assembly in Uttar Pradesh has not elected one after four years of its term.
• Overuse of Ordinance Route: In 2025, 127 ordinances were promulgated. This marks an increase from 100 Ordinances issued in 2024. 
  • Karnataka and Meghalaya issued more Ordinances than in 2024, while Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra recorded a decline
• Governor’s Assent and Federal Tensions: Delays and discretionary handling of Bills under Article 200 create uncertainty in law implementation and highlight tensions in Centre–State legislative relations.

Broader Constitutional and Democratic Concerns

The findings of the PRS report point towards a deeper structural issue in India’s federal democracy:

• Erosion of deliberative democracy: Legislatures are increasingly functioning as approval bodies rather than forums for debate.
• Executive dominance: Rapid passage of Bills indicates growing executive control over legislative processes.
• Weak institutional accountability: Limited scrutiny reduces checks and balances on government decisions.
• Decline in federal legislative culture: State legislatures are not fully exercising their constitutional role as independent law-making bodies.

This raises concerns about the health of India’s federal legislative architecture, where state assemblies are constitutionally expected to act as strong pillars of governance and accountability.

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Way Forward

Strengthening the functioning of state legislatures requires structural, procedural, and institutional reforms to restore their role as effective deliberative bodies:

• State legislatures should adopt minimum mandatory sitting days, in line with NCRWC recommendations, to ensure adequate time for debate, scrutiny, and oversight.
• The committee system must be strengthened and made mandatory for significant Bills, enabling detailed examination, expert inputs, and evidence-based lawmaking.
• Same-day passage of Bills should be discouraged, except in exceptional or emergency situations, to preserve legislative deliberation and democratic scrutiny.
• All constitutional and institutional vacancies, especially the Deputy Speaker under Article 178, should be filled in a time-bound manner to ensure procedural stability.
• Budget discussions must be expanded and structured, with sufficient time allocated for departmental scrutiny to strengthen financial accountability.
• Capacity building of legislators should be enhanced through training, research support, and better access to legislative analysis to improve the quality of debate.
• Greater transparency in the legislative process, including advance publication of Bills and wider public consultation, should be institutionalised to improve legitimacy and trust.
• The use of ordinances under Article 213 should be strictly limited, ensuring they remain instruments of necessity rather than a substitute for legislative debate.