Right to disconnect bill tabled in Lok Sabha, seeks shield from after-hours work calls

New Delhi: A private member’s bill that seeks to give employees the legal right to ignore work-related calls and emails beyond office hours and on holidays was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The proposed “Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025”, moved by NCP MP Supriya Sule, also seeks the creation of an Employees’ Welfare Authority to frame and enforce rules on after-hours communication.

The bill allows employees to refuse to respond to official calls and emails outside designated working hours and on holidays, and lays down related safeguards to protect workers from any adverse action for exercising this right. Alongside it, several other private member bills were introduced in Parliament, covering issues from menstrual benefits to journalists’ safety and the death penalty.

Congress MP Kadiyam Kavya tabled the Menstrual Benefits Bill, 2024, to ensure workplace facilities and legal protections for women during menstruation, while LJP MP Shambhavi Choudhary proposed a law for paid menstrual leave and better menstrual hygiene and health facilities for working women and female students. Congress MP Manickam Tagore introduced a bill seeking exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET for undergraduate medical admissions, coming after the President declined assent to the state’s earlier legislation on the issue.

DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi moved a bill seeking abolition of the death penalty in India, arguing that life imprisonment is sufficient and in line with past recommendations to phase out capital punishment, barring terror-related offences. Independent MP Vishaldada Prakashbapu Patil, meanwhile, introduced the Journalist (Prevention of Violence and Protection) Bill, 2024, aimed at preventing attacks on journalists and providing legal safeguards for their personal safety and property.