All-party meeting convenes ahead of Parliament's Winter Session

The Union government on Saturday convened an all-party meeting to deliberate on a host of issues related to Parliament's Winter session.

According to the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pralhad Joshi, the Winter session of Parliament will start on December 4 and continue till December 22.

The all-party meeting, which was convened in Parliament's Library building, saw the participation of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh and several other leaders from different political parties.

Notably, the Winter session of Parliament is expected to be stormy as the Ethics panel's report on the "cash-for-query" allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra will be tabled in Lok Sabha.

The House will have to adopt the report before the expulsion recommended by the panel comes into effect.

During this session, three important bills aiming to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Evidence Act are likely to be discussed.

Another key bill pending in Parliament relates to the appointment of chief election commissioner and election commissioners.

Introduced in Monsoon session, the government had not pushed for its passage in the special session of Parliament amid protests from the Opposition and former chief election commissioners as it seeks to bring on a par the status of the CEC and ECs with that of the cabinet secretary.