India, Sept. 14 -- The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned sine die on August 13. Twenty-nine days later, neither House has been prorogued - the formal act that closes a parliamentary session - triggering a political row.

The Congress's Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh has called the gap a record, longer than the 28-day stretch in 2015, and cited it as evidence the government was stalling on delimitation. Trinamool Congress lawmaker Sagarika Ghose has argued that the government lacks the numbers for a constitutional amendment.

The Constitution distinguishes three ways a legislative sitting can end.

Adjournment is a break within a sitting, or between sittings of the same session, ordered by the presiding officer. Adjournment si...