Parliament: Composition, Powers and Law-making

1. Why a Parliament: the legislature in a parliamentary democracy

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• Class 11, Legislature says the legislature is more than a law-making body. It is "the centre of all democratic political process". It is the most representative organ of government, and it can choose and dismiss the government. Cabinets now set the agenda, so critics speak of decline (Section 11).
• Control in action: a fertiliser price rise in the budget of 28 February 2002 was rolled back on 11 March 2002, and the 1998 urea hike was withdrawn after an opposition walkout.
• Parliament of India (Art. 79) = the President + Rajya Sabha + Lok Sabha. The President is part of Parliament but is not a member of either House. The President summons and prorogues the Houses, dissolves the Lok Sabha, gives assent to bills and issues ordinances.
• Class 8 gives four heads of functions: constitutional, law-making, executive accountability and financial accountability.
• Parliamentary sovereignty (the British idea that Parliament can make or unmake any law) does not apply in India. A written Constitution, federalism, Fundamental Rights and judicial review limit Parliament, and so does the basic structure doctrine (Kesavananda Bharati, 1973; see amendment-basic-structure). N.V. Gadgil argued the opposite in the Constituent Assembly on 18 November 1949: he said the only limits were procedural.
• Samvidhan Sadan: the round old building designed by Lutyens and Baker (opened 1927), where the Constituent Assembly met. It got this name in 2023. The new Sansad Bhavan was inaugurated on 28 May 2023 and held its first sitting on 19 September 2023.
• Sengol: a gold-plated silver sceptre (ceremonial staff) from the Chola tradition, with Nandi on top. It was given to Nehru on 14 August 1947 and placed beside the Speaker's chair in May 2023 as a symbol of rule guided by dharma.
• The 18th Lok Sabha was constituted in June 2024.

2. Why two Houses: bicameralism and the representation of states

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• Bicameralism means a legislature with two Houses. A unicameral legislature has only one. Class 11, Legislature gives two reasons why large, diverse countries choose two Houses:
• every section of society and every region gets a voice;

• each decision gets a "double check", so a hasty decision in one House can be reconsidered in the other.

• Purnima Banerji told the Constituent Assembly (30 July 1949) that an upper House is a revising body whose "views may count but not its votes". The colonial precedent was the two-House central legislature under the Government of India Act 1919.

• Symmetrical representation gives every unit the same number of seats whatever its population, as in the US Senate (two per state).
• India's Fourth Schedule instead allots Rajya Sabha seats mostly by population. Uttar Pradesh has 31 seats and Sikkim has 1.
• Germany's Bundesrat represents the 16 Länder (states) with 69 seats, divided by population bands. Its members are state ministers who vote as a bloc on their government's instructions. Laws that touch state powers need its consent.
• Is the Rajya Sabha a federal chamber? Its consent is needed under Art. 249. But Class 11 notes that its members "represent their parties more than they represent their States". The 2003 removal of the domicile rule sharpened this criticism (Section 4).

3. The Lok Sabha: composition, seats and term

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• Lok Sabha: the directly elected House. Art. 81 caps it at 550 elected members: 530 from states and 20 from UTs. Today it has 543 single-member constituencies, filled by first-past-the-post voting (the candidate with the most votes wins).
• Anglo-Indian nominated seats: the President could nominate up to 2 Anglo-Indians to the Lok Sabha (Art. 331), and Governors could nominate one to each assembly. The 104th Amendment, 2019 ended these seats from 25 January 2020. The same amendment extended SC/ST reservation to 2030 (Art. 334). This is why older books give 552 seats.
• Seat freeze: each state's share of seats is based on the 1971 census.
• The 42nd Amendment, 1976 froze it until 2000.
• The 84th Amendment, 2001 extended the freeze until the first census after 2026.

• The 87th Amendment, 2003 allowed boundaries to be redrawn on the 2001 census (the 2008 delimitation). This fixed 84 SC and 47 ST seats (Art. 330).

• The 106th Amendment, 2023 (Art. 330A) reserves one-third of seats for women for 15 years. It starts only after the delimitation that follows the next census (verify timeline).

• Term: five years from the first meeting (Art. 83(2)). During a national emergency Parliament can extend the term by law, one year at a time, but not beyond six months after the emergency ends. The 42nd Amendment made the term six years and the 44th Amendment, 1978 restored five.
• The Council of Ministers is responsible to this House alone (Art. 75(3)).

4. The Rajya Sabha: composition, election and permanence

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• Rajya Sabha: up to 250 members (Art. 80): 238 representing states and UTs, plus 12 nominated. Present strength is 245, of whom 233 are elected (verify current).
• Members are chosen by the elected MLAs of each state assembly through proportional representation by single transferable vote (Art. 80(4)). Only three UTs have seats: Delhi (3), Puducherry (1) and Jammu and Kashmir (4).
• A permanent House: it is never dissolved (Art. 83(1)). Members serve six years, and one-third retire every two years (RPA 1951 s.154). It can meet for urgent business even when the Lok Sabha is dissolved.
• Because only a third changes at a time, party strength shifts slowly. Governments have often lacked a majority here, for example the Janata government in 1977 and the NDA in 2000.
• Nominated members (Art. 80(3)): 12 people chosen by the President for special knowledge in literature, science, art and social service. A nominee may join a party within six months of taking the seat (Tenth Schedule para 2(3)). Nominees vote in the Vice-President's election but not in the President's.
• 2003 reforms:
• The RPA (Amendment) Act 2003 brought in the open ballot (party agents can see how members vote) and dropped the rule that a candidate had to be a voter in that state.
• Kuldip Nayar v. Union of India (2006) upheld both changes.
• NOTA does not apply to Rajya Sabha elections (Shailesh Manubhai Parmar v. ECI, 2018).

5. Membership: qualifications, disqualification and offices of profit

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• Qualifications for membership of Parliament (Art. 84): Indian citizen; takes the Third Schedule oath; at least 25 years old (Lok Sabha) or 30 (Rajya Sabha); meets conditions set by law, such as being a registered voter. Sitting before taking the oath, or while disqualified, costs ₹500 a day (Art. 104).
• Disqualification of members of Parliament (Art. 102(1)):
• holding an office of profit;
• unsound mind declared by a court;
• undischarged insolvency;
• loss of citizenship;
• disqualification by law, for example conviction with a sentence of 2 years or more (RPA 1951 ss. 8-11A).

The President decides these cases but must follow the Election Commission's opinion (Art. 103). Defection (Art. 102(2)) is decided by the presiding officer instead. Since Lily Thomas (2013), disqualification on conviction takes effect at once.

• Office of profit: a government post that brings pay or benefits. The bar keeps legislators independent of the executive.
• Guru Gobinda Basu (1963) set the tests: who appoints, who pays, who controls.

• Jaya Bachchan (2006) held that the post's capacity to give money matters, even if no pay is drawn.

• The Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act 1959 lists exempt posts. Its 2006 amendment, which applied retrospectively, was upheld in Consumer Education and Research Society (2009).

• Double membership:
• A person elected to both Houses must choose one within 10 days, or the Rajya Sabha seat falls vacant (RPA s.68).

• An MP who also wins a state seat must resign the state seat within 14 days, or the Parliament seat is lost.

• Vacation of seat for absence: a House may declare a seat vacant after 60 days of absence without permission (Art. 101(4)).

• MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, 1993) lets each MP recommend local works worth ₹5 crore a year. District authorities carry out the works. Bhim Singh (2010) upheld the scheme. The 2nd ARC (2007) urged scrapping it because it pulls MPs into executive spending.

6. Presiding officers, the Leader of the House and the Opposition

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• The Lok Sabha elects a Speaker. The Vice-President is ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Class 11, Legislature calls the presiding officer the "final authority" on House business, breach of privilege and defection cases. Election, removal and the casting vote are covered in parliamentary-procedure.
• Leader of the House: the Prime Minister if a Lok Sabha member, otherwise a minister the PM nominates. In the Rajya Sabha it is a minister-member nominated by the PM. With the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and the whips, the Leader manages government business.
• Leader of the Opposition (LoP): the leader of the largest opposition party, recognised by the presiding officer. The Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act 1977 gave the post legal status and cabinet rank.
• Lok Sabha practice has required one-tenth of the seats, so the post was vacant from 2014 to 2024.

• It was filled in June 2024 (Rahul Gandhi; verify current).

• The LoP sits on selection panels for the CVC, CBI Director, Lokpal, NHRC and CIC, and for the CEC and Election Commissioners (2023 Act). If no LoP is recognised, most of these laws use the leader of the single largest opposition party instead (verify each).

• Shadow cabinet: in Britain, the opposition forms a team in which each member "shadows" a minister, as a government-in-waiting. India has no formal equivalent.
• A government without a Rajya Sabha majority has to bargain with the opposition to pass bills.

7. Functions of Parliament and the powers of the two Houses

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• Functions (Class 11, Legislature):
• legislative (the Cabinet decides, and Parliament "often merely approves");
• control of the executive;
• financial;
• representation;
• debating;
• constituent (amending the Constitution);
• electoral (electing the President and Vice-President);
• judicial (removing the President, Vice-President and judges).

Parliament also reorganises states (Art. 3), creates or abolishes state legislative councils (Art. 169) and approves emergencies.

• Where the Houses are equal: non-money bills, constitutional amendments, impeachment of the President, removal of judges and the Vice-President, and approval of emergency proclamations.
• Special powers of the Rajya Sabha:
• Art. 249: by two-thirds of members present and voting, it can let Parliament make laws on a State List subject in the national interest. The resolution lasts one year and can be renewed. The law lapses six months after the resolution ends.
• Art. 312: by the same majority, it can authorise a new All India Service. The Indian Forest Service (1966) was created this way.
• Art. 67(b): only the Rajya Sabha can start the removal of the Vice-President.

• It alone approves emergency proclamations made while the Lok Sabha is dissolved.

• Exclusive powers of the Lok Sabha:

• Money bills start only here, and it has the final say (Art. 109).
• Only it votes on demands for grants (Art. 113).
• Only it can remove the Council of Ministers through a no-confidence motion (Art. 75(3)).

• Only it can disapprove a national emergency by simple majority (Art. 352(7)-(8), 44th Amendment).

• The reason, in Class 11's words: the directly elected House should hold the power to remove a government and control the purse.

8. Law-making in outline: kinds of bills and the two Houses

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• Law-making is a political process. Parties, interest groups and media push for bills, the Cabinet decides, and the ministry concerned drafts the bill. Private members' bills rarely pass.
• The RTE story (Class 8):
• Its roots are in the DPSPs.
• The 86th Amendment, 2002 added Art. 21A.
• The bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and studied by a committee.
• The Lok Sabha passed it and the President signed it in August 2009.

Bill	Where it starts	President's recommendation	Rajya Sabha's power	Joint sitting
Ordinary bill	Either House	No	Full: pass, amend, reject	Yes
Money bill (Art. 110; Speaker's certificate is final)	Lok Sabha only	Yes	Can only recommend, within 14 days	No
Financial bill (Category I) (Art. 117(1)): money-bill matters plus other matters	Lok Sabha only	Yes	Can amend or reject	Yes
Financial bill Category II (Art. 117(3))	Either House	Needed only before the House considers it	Full	Yes
Constitution amendment bill (Art. 368)	Either House	No	Equal; special majority needed in each House	No

• Joint sitting (Art. 108): the President calls it when:
• one House rejects a bill passed by the other;
• the Houses disagree on amendments; or
• six months pass without the other House passing the bill.

The Speaker presides (Art. 118(4)), and a majority of members present and voting decides. A joint sitting already notified survives dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

• Three joint sittings so far: Dowry Prohibition (1961), Banking Service Commission (Repeal) (1978) and POTA (2002). NCERT says POTA was "rejected"; in fact it was passed at the 2002 joint sitting.

9. Parliamentary control over the executive and the power of the purse

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• Cabinet dictatorship: a cabinet backed by a disciplined majority can dominate the legislature, so "the Cabinet leads and the House merely follows" (Class 11, Legislature).

• Parliamentary control over the executive works through four tools: 1. Deliberation: Question Hour ("like giving an examination almost every day"), Zero Hour and adjournment motions. 2. Approving or refusing laws: governments without a Rajya Sabha majority (1977, 2000) had to make concessions. NCERT says the Lokpal Bill "failed"; now the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 exists and the Lokpal was set up in 2019. 3. Financial control (below). 4. No-confidence: "fictional rather than real" when a government has a stable majority. But coalition governments fell in 1990, 1997 and 1999; Vajpayee's lost by one vote.

• Financial control by Parliament:

• no tax without law (Art. 265);
• no spending without appropriation (Arts. 114, 266);
• the budget is a constitutional duty (Art. 112);
• CAG reports and the Public Accounts Committee expose misuse.

Through money, Parliament also controls policy.

• Limits on financial control: the guillotine (voting the remaining demands without debate). About 80% of budgets were passed without discussion in the 17th Lok Sabha (PRS). Audit comes only after the money is spent.
• Committees are "miniature legislatures" (Class 11). NCERT says standing committees exist "since 1983, over twenty". Now there are 24 departmentally related standing committees, a system begun in 1993. Class 8's Ayush report shows the loop: the committee recommends and the ministry replies with an action-taken report.
• Privilege: no action can be taken against a member for words spoken in the House. The presiding officer decides breaches.

10. State legislatures: assemblies and councils

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• Parallel structure (Class 8): the Governor mirrors the President and the Chief Minister mirrors the PM. Money bills start only in the assembly. On Concurrent List subjects, a Union law prevails over a state law (Art. 254); for example, the RTE Act applies across India.
• Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): the directly elected lower House. It has 60 to 500 members (Art. 170), with a few small states allowed fewer (verify list). Its term is five years (Art. 172), and the state Council of Ministers is responsible to it. It has SC/ST reservation (Art. 332) and women's reservation once that takes effect (Art. 332A).
• Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad): exists in six states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh (verify current).

• Creating or abolishing a council (Art. 169): 1. The assembly passes a resolution by a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of members present and voting. 2. Parliament then passes an ordinary law. This law does not count as an Art. 368 amendment.

• Size and composition (Art. 171): no more than one-third of the assembly's size, and at least 40 members.

• 1/3 elected by local bodies;
• 1/12 by graduates;
• 1/12 by teachers;
• 1/3 by MLAs;
• the rest nominated by the Governor.

It is permanent, and one-third of members retire every two years.

• Weaker than the Rajya Sabha:
• On an ordinary bill it can delay for 3 months, then 1 month more after the assembly passes it again: 4 months at most. There is no joint sitting (Art. 197).

• On a money bill it has 14 days (Art. 198).

• Debate: some call councils a costly "parking lot" for politicians who lost elections; others value the expertise of graduates' and teachers' seats.

11. Decline of Parliament? Sittings, productivity and disruption

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• Decline of Parliament: the worry that Parliament has lost ground to the cabinet. Signs include fewer sittings, disruptions, walkouts, missing quorum and bills passed with little scrutiny.
• Sittings (Class 8 table, PRS): the 1st Lok Sabha held 677 sittings and the 13th held 356. The 16th held 331 (verify). The 17th (2019-24) held 274, the fewest of any full-term Lok Sabha. In the 17th Lok Sabha, 35% of bills were passed with less than an hour of debate and only 16% went to committees.
• Parliamentary productivity: the share of scheduled time that a House actually works.
• Venkaiah Naidu (2021) said Rajya Sabha productivity was about 78% in 2004-14 and about 65% after that, with a record low of 35.75% in 2018.

• In the Monsoon Session 2025 the Lok Sabha worked about 29% and the Rajya Sabha about 34% of scheduled time (PRS; verify).

• Counter-view (Class 11 exercise, Dolly vs Sudha): governments fell on the floor of the House in 1990, 1997 and 1999. Protest has won rollbacks (1998, 2002). Committees work away from the cameras. What has declined is debate and scrutiny, not Parliament's legal power.

• Remedies:
• More sitting days: the NCRWC (2002) suggested 120 a year for the Lok Sabha and 100 for the Rajya Sabha.
• Class 11's proposals: longer sessions, compulsory attendance and penalties for disrupting the House.
• Routine committee scrutiny of bills.
• Informed citizens (Class 8).

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Exam angles

Prelims — high-yield facts and traps

• Article matches:
• Art. 79: Parliament = President + two Houses
• Art. 80: Rajya Sabha (12 nominated)
• Art. 81: Lok Sabha maximum of 550
• Art. 83: terms
• Art. 84: qualifications
• Arts. 101-104: vacating seats, disqualification, President decides on the ECI's opinion, ₹500 penalty
• Art. 108: joint sitting
• Arts. 109-110: money bills
• Art. 117: financial bills
• Arts. 169, 171: legislative councils

• Arts. 249, 312: Rajya Sabha resolutions

• Amendments:

• 42nd (1976): term made 6 years and seat freeze to 2000
• 44th (1978): term back to 5 years
• 84th (2001): seat freeze until the first census after 2026
• 87th (2003): delimitation on the 2001 census
• 104th (2019): Anglo-Indian seats ended

• 106th (2023): women's reservation

• Cases:

• Guru Gobinda Basu (1963): office-of-profit tests
• Jaya Bachchan (2006): capacity to give money matters
• Kuldip Nayar (2006): domicile rule dropped and open ballot upheld
• Bhim Singh (2010): MPLADS upheld

• Shailesh Manubhai Parmar (2018): no NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections

• Numbers: 543 elected Lok Sabha seats; 84 SC and 47 ST seats; 245 Rajya Sabha members (verify); Uttar Pradesh 31, Sikkim 1; minimum age 25 and 30; 60-day absence rule; MPLADS ₹5 crore; council delay of 4 months (ordinary bill) and 14 days (money bill).

• Joint sittings: three (1961, 1978, 2002 POTA). The Speaker presides. Not available for money bills or constitution amendment bills.
• Rajya Sabha-only powers: Arts. 249, 312, 67(b); approving emergencies while the Lok Sabha is dissolved. Lok Sabha-only powers: money bills, demands for grants, no-confidence, disapproving an emergency.
• Statement traps:
• "The President is a member of Parliament": FALSE.
• "The Rajya Sabha can be dissolved": FALSE.
• "Nominated members vote in the presidential election": FALSE.
• "Creating a council needs an Art. 368 amendment": FALSE.
• "The President decides defection cases": FALSE (the presiding officer does).

• "A Category I financial bill cannot be rejected by the Rajya Sabha": FALSE.

• Other facts: the LoP has had legal status since 1977, and the post was vacant 2014-24. The Sengol and Samvidhan Sadan date from 2023, when the new building opened.

Mains — GS-II themes

1. Is the Rajya Sabha a federal chamber or a "council of parties"? Consider the dropped domicile rule, the open ballot, the money-bill route and nominations.
2. Decline of Parliament: fewer sittings, disruption, guillotined budgets, weak committee referral. Weigh this against governments falling on the floor of the House, and suggest reforms.
3. How effective is parliamentary control over the executive under single-party majorities compared with coalitions? Consider the role of the opposition and the LoP.
4. Office of profit, MPLADS and the separation of powers.
5. State legislative councils: useful or costly? Look at the politics of creating and abolishing them under Art. 169.
6. The seat freeze, delimitation after the next census, the north-south balance and women's reservation.
7. Parliamentary sovereignty compared with constitutional supremacy and the basic structure.

Current-affairs hooks

• PRS end-of-session data on sittings, productivity and committee referrals.
• Census 2027, delimitation and when women's reservation starts (verify current).
• Disqualification of legislators after a conviction, and reversal when the conviction is stayed; office-of-profit disputes in states.
• Proposals to create or abolish legislative councils; biennial Rajya Sabha polls and cross-voting.
• The LoP's role on selection panels; changes to MPLADS guidelines.