Fourth Schedule
Topic: Parliament: Composition, Powers and Law-making · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 5 "Universal Franchise and India's Electoral System"; Class 8, Ch 6 "The Parliamentary System: Legislature and Executive"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"; Class 11, Ch 7 "Federalism"
Meaning
The Fourth Schedule is a list in the Constitution that sets how many Rajya Sabha seats each state and Union territory gets. Seats are given mostly by population, so big states get many seats and small states get few. This makes the Rajya Sabha different from upper Houses that give every unit the same number of seats.
Example
Under the Fourth Schedule, Uttar Pradesh has 31 Rajya Sabha seats and Sikkim has 1. Only three Union territories have seats: Delhi (3), Puducherry (1) and Jammu and Kashmir (4).
Don't confuse with
- Symmetrical representation: every unit gets equal seats whatever its population, as in the US Senate. The Fourth Schedule does the opposite and gives seats mostly by population.