PRS Legislative Research Releases Report 'Annual Review of State Laws 2021'
Recently PRS Legislative Research has released a report titled 'Annual Review of State Laws 2021'. According to the report, in the year 2021, the Kerala Legislative Assembly met for 61 days, which is
the most in any state. Apart from this, 144 ordinances were issued in Kerala itself, which was the highest in the country last year.
Meetings
States such as Manipur, Odisha, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have prescribed minimum number of
days of meeting through rules of procedure, which varies from 40 days in Punjab to 90 days in Uttar Pradesh.
Ordinance
In this regard, Kerala was followed by Andhra Pradesh with 20nordinances and Maharashtra with 15, out of which 33 Bills took the form of Acts to replace Ordinances.
Status of Passage of Bills
Of the bills adopted by 28 state legislatures, 44% were passed within a day of their introduction. Gujarat, West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar were among the eight states
that passed all the bills on the day of the introduction. Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha and Rajasthan took more than five days to pass most of their bills.
Focus Areas of Meetings
Education was the top priority with 21% of all laws passed in the year 2021 related to this subject. The year 2021 had the largest share of state laws passed, followed by education, taxation and urban governance.