Two significant pieces of legislation cleared Parliament on Monday, August 3, 2026 — one to expand the strength of the Supreme Court of India, another to reform the MSME sector — but the session ended on a sour note as Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju publicly called out Indian National Congress MPs for disrupting proceedings and sitting out the debates entirely.

Two bills, one session — and a conspicuous absence

Lok Sabha passed the bill to increase the number of Supreme Court judges, while Rajya Sabha cleared the MSME Bill — a legislative double on a single parliamentary day. The Supreme Court's sanctioned judge strength was last raised in 2008, when the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act pushed the bench from 25 to 31. The new bill marks the next step in a long-running effort to align judicial capacity with a mounting caseload.

The MSME Bill, meanwhile, targets one of India's most consequential economic engines — a sector that employs hundreds of millions and forms the backbone of domestic manufacturing and exports. Legislative reform here carries direct stakes for small business owners across every state.

Rijiju's rebuke: 'No body to guide Congress MPs'

Rijiju did not hold back. 'It's very unfortunate that there's no body to guide the Congress MPs,' he wrote on X, pointing to what he described as deliberate disruption and non-participation in debate on both bills. As the minister responsible for managing the government's legislative business through Parliament, the charge carries institutional weight — it is not merely a political jab but a formal complaint about how the opposition conducted itself during a sitting day.

The remark also lands as a pointed reference to Congress's current leadership dynamics. Parliamentary sessions have repeatedly seen opposition walkouts and floor disruptions across governments, but Rijiju's framing — that Congress MPs lacked anyone to guide them — sharpens the critique into a question of internal party coherence rather than just tactical obstruction.

What the disruptions cost the debate

When opposition MPs walk out or disrupt proceedings, the legislative record loses their scrutiny. Bills pass, but without the adversarial questioning that stress-tests provisions, flags implementation gaps, and creates an accountable public record. For consequential legislation — expanding the apex court, reshaping MSME regulation — that absence matters beyond the day's headlines. The government gets its numbers; the country gets thinner debate.

Implementation notifications for both bills, and whether Congress recalibrates its parliamentary strategy in the next session, are the two threads worth watching now.