A Bill Becomes an Act in India When Both Houses Pass It and the President Assents, and in July 2026 One Bill Went From Introduction to Assent in Four Days

A Bill, which is a proposed law, becomes an Act of Parliament when both Houses have agreed to the same text under Article 107(2) of the Constitution and the President has assented under Article 111. Per the Government’s Manual of Parliamentary Procedures, the date of assent is “the date on which the Bill becomes an Act”.

One Bill in July 2026 shows how fast that can happen. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 27 July 2026, passed there on 29 July after nearly 11 hours of debate in which 48 members took part, and passed the Rajya Sabha on 30 July after 6 hours 39 minutes. The President’s assent came on 31 July, and the Gazette of India Extraordinary published it that day as Act No. 10 of 2026. The Act raised the minimum prison term under section 10(1) of the 2024 Act from three years to five.

What happens before Parliament sees a Bill

Every proposal starts in the ministry whose subject it touches, the Manual says. That ministry asks the Ministry of Law and Justice whether the idea is feasible and constitutional, then writes a note for the Cabinet. Drafting falls to the Law Ministry’s Legislative Department, ordinarily within 30 days of receiving the proposal.

After the Cabinet approves, the ministry prepares a Statement of Objects and Reasons signed by the Minister, a financial memorandum agreed with the Finance Ministry if the Bill spends money, and a memorandum saying what powers to make rules the Bill hands to the executive. Some Bills also need the President’s recommendation before they can be introduced, among them Bills that change the area, boundaries or name of a state under Article 3 and Bills on tax and the Consolidated Fund of India under Article 117.

PRS Legislative Research, an independent research group in New Delhi, reported in December 2014 that the Government had adopted a pre-legislative consultation policy that year. It requires a ministry to put a draft Bill in the public domain for 30 days, with a justification and an estimate of the financial effect, before sending it to the Cabinet.

Parliament must also have the power to legislate on the subject. Under Article 246 it has exclusive power over the Union List and shares the Concurrent List with the states, and the Seventh Schedule that holds those lists decides whether a Bill is in order.

First reading: introduction and the Gazette

Under the Speaker’s and Chairman’s directions, the Manual says, an official Bill normally needs seven days’ notice in the Lok Sabha and five in the Rajya Sabha, and members must have copies at least two days before it is introduced. A Bill can start in either House, according to Article 107(1), except Money Bills and the other financial Bills covered by Article 117(1), which start in the Lok Sabha. Two of the 12 Bills introduced in the Monsoon Session of 2026 began in the Rajya Sabha, PRS’s list shows.

A Minister moves for leave to introduce, and the House decides by a majority of members present and voting. Any member can object that Parliament has no power to make the law. On 4 February 2004 the Rajya Sabha refused leave for the Allahabad University Bill, 2004, the first Government Bill it had ever declined to let in, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat records. PRS notes the opposite outcome for the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, which was opposed as unconstitutional and was introduced anyway. Once introduced, the Bill is published in the Gazette.

Second reading: committees, debate and clause-by-clause votes

Here the Houses can send a Bill to a committee. The Speaker or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha may refer it to one of the 24 department-related standing committees, which date from 1993 and are described in our piece on Parliament’s sessions and committees. A House can instead appoint a Select Committee of its own members or a Joint Committee of both Houses, or circulate the Bill to gather public opinion.

The Manual says referral is normal for every Bill except Appropriation Bills, Finance Bills, Bills replacing ordinances and Bills of trivial nature, and adds that a Minister who sees urgency may ask the presiding officer to skip it. Once a committee reports, the Manual says, the ministry decides whether to change the Bill, and amendments it proposes need the Cabinet’s approval.

In PRS’s count, 16% of Bills in the 17th Lok Sabha went to committees, against 28% in the 16th, and the figure for the 18th stands at 21% after the Monsoon Session of 2026.

A referral in full can be traced in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11 August 2023, the Bill went the same day to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, whose Report No. 246 is dated 10 November 2023. On 12 December 2023 the Government withdrew it and introduced a new Bill, the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, which PRS says takes in some of the committee’s recommendations. The Lok Sabha passed that Bill on 20 December and the Rajya Sabha on 21 December.

Floor debate has two parts, a general discussion of the Bill’s principle and then a clause-by-clause reading in which any member may move an amendment, each decided by a majority of those present and voting. How long this takes varies a great deal. PRS found that 58% of the Bills passed in the 17th Lok Sabha went through within two weeks of introduction. For the Monsoon Session of 2026 it counted 11 Bills passed, nine of them in the Lok Sabha without any member other than the Minister speaking, with the public examinations Bill’s nearly 11-hour debate the exception.

Third reading and the second House

Third reading is the vote on passing the Bill. Debate narrows to arguments for or against, and only formal, verbal or consequential amendments are allowed, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat says. An ordinary Bill passes by a majority of members present and voting under Article 100(1), with a quorum of one-tenth of the House, and the presiding officer votes only to break a tie.

Next the Bill goes to the other House with a message from its Secretary-General, and passes through the same readings. If the second House amends it, the first must agree to the change, because Article 107(2) requires both Houses to approve the same text. Two kinds of Bill follow other routes. A Money Bill goes to the Rajya Sabha only for recommendations, as set out in our piece on the Rajya Sabha, and a constitutional amendment needs the special majorities described in the article on Article 368.

What happens to a pending Bill depends on its House. Under Article 107, a Bill pending in Parliament does not lapse when the Houses are prorogued, which formally ends a session. A Bill pending in the Rajya Sabha that the Lok Sabha has not passed survives the Lok Sabha’s dissolution, but a Bill pending in the Lok Sabha, or passed by it and pending in the Rajya Sabha, lapses. At the end of the 17th Lok Sabha in February 2024, PRS recorded four Bills set to lapse and 19 Bills introduced in the Rajya Sabha in earlier terms still pending, the oldest a constitutional amendment from 1992.

When the Houses disagree: three joint sittings

Article 108 gives the President a way out of a deadlock on an ordinary Bill. If one House rejects a Bill the other passed, if the Houses finally disagree on amendments, or if more than six months pass in the second House with no action, the President may notify that the two Houses will sit together. Neither House then proceeds with the Bill. At the joint sitting the Speaker presides under Article 118(4), the Bill passes by a majority of all members of both Houses present and voting, and only amendments forced by the delay or bearing on the disagreement can be moved. Money Bills and constitutional amendments are excluded.

Three occasions are on the Rajya Sabha Secretariat’s list. In the first, the Rajya Sabha had amended the Dowry Prohibition Bill, 1959 in three ways. It added the words “either directly or indirectly” to the definition of dowry, deleted an explanation saying wedding presents were not dowry unless given as payment for the marriage, and deleted the clause setting the penalty, imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to Rs 5,000. The Lok Sabha disagreed with all three and the Rajya Sabha held to its position, so the Houses met in the Central Hall on 6 and 9 May 1961, kept the first amendment, rejected the second, and kept the penalty clause with a proviso that courts may take up an offence only with the sanction of the state government or a specified officer.

The second followed the Rajya Sabha’s rejection, on 8 December 1977, of the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill, 1977. Sitting together in May 1978, the Houses passed the Bill as amended. In the third, on 26 March 2002, the joint sitting passed the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2002 as the Lok Sabha had passed it, after the Rajya Sabha adopted a resolution disapproving the Prevention of Terrorism (Second) Ordinance, 2001 and refused to take up the Bill.

Calling a joint sitting is optional for the President, the Secretariat adds, and a second House may still pass a Bill after six months. Its example is the Prevention of Corruption Bill, 1987, which passed the Lok Sabha on 7 May 1987 and the Rajya Sabha on 11 August 1988.

Assent, the Gazette and the day a law starts

After both Houses pass a Bill, the Manual says, the Secretariat reprints it as passed by the Houses of Parliament and the Chairman or Speaker signs it. Through the Legislative Department it reaches the President. Under Article 111 the President declares assent or withholds it, or returns a Bill that is not a Money Bill with a message asking the Houses to reconsider it. If the Houses pass it again, with or without changes, the President “shall not withhold assent”. Article 74(1) says the President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat’s booklet records the rare cases. The President withheld assent from the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 1991, and returned the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 1986, which was withdrawn on 21 March 2002. Article 111 sets no deadline for the President. On Bills passed by state legislatures, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court said in an advisory opinion on 20 November 2025 that courts cannot fix timelines for Governors and the President under Articles 200 and 201, according to the Supreme Court Observer.

Each Act’s Gazette notice states the date of assent. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s says it received the President’s assent on 25 December 2023 and became Act No. 45 of 2023, though that was not the day it took effect. Its section 1(2) lets the Central Government choose the date by notification and allows different dates for different provisions. In a Lok Sabha answer of 3 December 2024 the Ministry of Home Affairs said the Sanhita came into force on 1 July 2024, except sub-section (2) of section 106.

A similar gap separates passage from effect in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. It was introduced on 3 August 2023, passed the Lok Sabha on 7 August and the Rajya Sabha on 9 August, and received assent on 11 August. Its own commencement also waits on a notification, and the Rules gazetted on 13 November 2025 phase in over time: rules 1, 2 and 17 to 21 took effect on publication, rule 4 a year later, and most of the rest after 18 months.

An Act with no commencement clause starts on the day of assent under section 5 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. The 2026 public examinations Act is built that way, with a text of only a short title and the amendments, so section 5 makes it effective from 31 July 2026.

Ordinances and private members’ Bills

Two other routes sit beside the main one. Article 123 lets the President promulgate an ordinance when both Houses are not in session. It has the force of an Act, must be laid before both Houses, and ceases to operate six weeks after Parliament reassembles, or sooner if both Houses pass resolutions disapproving it. Preparing an ordinance follows the procedure for a Bill, including a Cabinet note, the Manual says.

A private member’s Bill is introduced by an MP who is not a Minister. In the Rajya Sabha, the Secretariat’s 2005 booklet says, notice is a month, time is set aside on alternate Fridays for two and a half hours, and a member may introduce three Bills a session. In the 17th Lok Sabha PRS counted 729 such Bills, of which two were discussed. As of February 2024, only 14 had passed Parliament and received assent, and none had passed both Houses since 1970.