Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges

1. Sessions, sittings and the life of a House

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• Summoning of Parliament (Art. 85(1)): the President calls each House to meet. The gap between two sessions cannot be more than six months, so Parliament must meet at least twice a year.
• A session of Parliament runs from a House's first sitting to its prorogation. There are usually three a year: budget (Feb–Apr/May), monsoon (Jul–Aug/Sep) and winter (Nov–Dec). The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs sets the dates, and there is no fixed calendar. A sitting is a day's meeting of about six hours (Class 8). A special session in September 2023 moved Parliament to the new building and passed the 106th Amendment.
• President's special address (Art. 87): the President speaks to both Houses together at the first session after each general election and at the first session of every year. The address sets out the government's programme. Art. 86 lets the President address either House at other times.
• Ways a sitting, session or House ends:
• Adjournment: the presiding officer pauses a sitting for hours, days or weeks.
• Adjournment sine die: the presiding officer ends a sitting without fixing a date to meet again. This closes the session's business.
• Prorogation (Art. 85(2)(a)): the President ends the session. Pending bills survive, but most notices lapse.

• Dissolution of the Lok Sabha (Art. 85(2)(b)): this ends the House itself. It happens when the five-year term ends or earlier on the PM's advice (as in 1979, 1991, 1997 and 1999). The Rajya Sabha is never dissolved.

• Lame-duck session: the last session of an outgoing Lok Sabha, held after a new one has been elected.

• Lapse of bills on dissolution: bills pending in the Lok Sabha lapse. So do bills passed by the Lok Sabha but still pending in the Rajya Sabha. These bills survive:
• bills introduced in the Rajya Sabha and still pending there;
• bills awaiting the President's assent;
• bills the President has returned for reconsideration;

• bills for which a joint sitting was notified before dissolution.

• Quorum (Art. 100(3)): the minimum attendance is one-tenth of the total members, counting the presiding officer. Without it, the sitting must be adjourned or suspended (Art. 100(4)). Class 11 lists "absence of quorum" among Parliament's problems.

2. Presiding officers and the conduct of business

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• Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Arts. 93-98): elected by the House from its members. G.V. Mavalankar was the first. Om Birla was re-elected in June 2024 by voice vote after a rare contest against K. Suresh.
• Keeps order and interprets the rules. Recognises parties and the Leader of the Opposition.
• Certifies money bills (Art. 110(3)) and presides over joint sittings (Art. 118(4)).
• Decides defection cases (Tenth Schedule, para 6). Kihoto Hollohan (1992) made these decisions open to court review. Keisham Meghachandra (2020) asked for a decision within three months.

• The Speaker's salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund. The Speaker heads the Lok Sabha secretariat (Art. 98).

• Removal of the Speaker (Art. 94(c)): a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members, after 14 days' notice. While it is pending, the Speaker cannot preside but may speak and vote in the first instance. There is no casting vote on it (Art. 96).

• Casting vote (Art. 100(1)): the presiding officer's vote, used only to break a tie.
• Pro tem Speaker: a member appointed by the President, usually the senior-most. The pro tem Speaker swears in new members and conducts the Speaker's election. In 2024, Bhartruhari Mahtab was chosen over K. Suresh, which was disputed.
• Deputy Speaker (Art. 93): elected by the House. Acts when the Speaker's office is vacant or the Speaker is absent. By convention the post often went to the opposition. It stayed vacant for the whole 17th Lok Sabha (2019-24) and is still unfilled in the 18th (verify current), even though Art. 93 says "as soon as may be".
• Panel of chairpersons: up to ten Lok Sabha members nominated by the Speaker. One of them presides when both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are absent. They cannot preside if both offices are vacant. Then a member appointed by the President acts (Art. 95(1)).
• Chairman of the Rajya Sabha: the Vice-President ex officio (by virtue of that office). He is not a member of the House and has only a casting vote. He cannot preside while a resolution for his removal is pending (Art. 92). The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is elected from its members (Art. 89(2)) and can be removed by a majority of all the then members. A panel of vice-chairpersons, nominated by the Chairman, presides when both are absent.
• Voice vote: the presiding officer judges whether the "Ayes" or the "Noes" are louder. Any member can challenge it and demand a division, a counted and recorded vote, now usually electronic. The farm bills passed the Rajya Sabha by voice vote on 20 September 2020 despite demands for a division. In the 17th Lok Sabha, only 9% of bills were passed by recorded vote (PRS).
• Point of order (Rule 376): a member's objection that proceedings break the rules or the Constitution. The presiding officer rules on it at once, without debate.
• Suspension of members:
• Rules 373-374: a member is named and suspended, for up to the rest of the session.
• Rule 374A (2001): automatic suspension for five sittings or the rest of the session.
• Rajya Sabha Rules 255-256 work in a similar way.
• Examples: 146 MPs were suspended in December 2023. In Ashish Shelar (2022), the Supreme Court struck down a one-year suspension of 12 Maharashtra MLAs because it went beyond the session.

3. Questions, Zero Hour and short discussions

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• Question Hour: usually the first hour of a Lok Sabha sitting. The Rajya Sabha moved it to 12 noon in 2014. Questions were first allowed under the Indian Councils Act 1892.

• Class 11 calls it "the most effective method" of watching the executive, "like giving an examination almost every day". Class 8 says it makes ministers "accountable".

• Kinds of questions:

• Starred question: marked with an asterisk and answered orally, so members can ask follow-up (supplementary) questions.
• Unstarred question: answered in writing and laid on the table. No supplementaries.

• Short notice question: on an urgent public matter, asked with less than ten days' notice. It is answered orally if the minister agrees.

• How Question Hour has weakened:

• It was suspended in the Monsoon Session 2020.
• In the 17th Lok Sabha it ran 60% of its scheduled time in the Lok Sabha and 52% in the Rajya Sabha. Only 24% of Lok Sabha starred questions got oral answers.

• In the Monsoon Session 2025 it ran 8% of scheduled time in the Lok Sabha and 5% in the Rajya Sabha (PRS).

• Zero Hour: an Indian innovation from 1962. It comes right after Question Hour. Members raise urgent matters without notice. It is not in the rules, and ministers need not reply (Class 11).

• Matters that cannot be raised in other ways go under Rule 377 in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha they are raised as a special mention.
• Half-an-hour discussion (Rule 55): on a recent answer that needs more explanation. It is held in the last half hour of up to three sittings a week.
• Short duration discussion (Rule 193 Lok Sabha; Rule 176 Rajya Sabha): the "two-hour discussion" on an urgent matter. There is no formal motion and no vote. Discussion under Rule 184 does end in a vote, which is why the opposition often demands it.
• Calling attention motion (Rule 197 Lok Sabha; Rule 180 Rajya Sabha): an Indian innovation of 1954, found in the rules and not in the Constitution. A member draws a minister's attention to an urgent matter. The minister makes an official statement and brief questions follow. It carries no censure.

4. Motions and resolutions: from debate to confidence

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• A substantive motion is a complete, independent proposal, such as impeaching the President or removing the Chief Election Commissioner. Substitute and subsidiary motions, including amendments, depend on another motion.
• Closure motion: cuts a debate short so the matter goes to vote. Its forms:
• simple closure;
• closure by compartments: clauses are grouped, and each group is debated and voted as a whole;
• kangaroo closure: only the key clauses are taken up, and the rest are skipped and treated as passed;

• the guillotine (Section 8).

• Motion of thanks (Art. 87): thanks the President for the special address. It is debated, members can move amendments, and it is voted on. Its defeat in the Lok Sabha would mean defeat of the government.

• Adjournment motion (Lok Sabha only, Rules 56-63):
• needs the support of 50 members;
• the matter must be definite, factual, urgent and not before a court (sub judice);
• the debate lasts at least 2½ hours;

• it carries an element of censure, so the Rajya Sabha does not have it.

• Suspension of business motion (Rajya Sabha Rule 267): sets aside the listed business to discuss an urgent matter. It needs the Chairman's consent and is rarely admitted.

• Censure motion: must state its reasons. It can target the whole Council of Ministers or one minister. If it passes, the government need not resign.
• No-confidence motion (Rule 198): Lok Sabha only, backed by 50 members, with no reasons needed. If passed, the whole government must resign (Art. 75(3)).
• The first was J.B. Kripalani's in 1963.
• None has ever been carried. The 2018 motion failed 126-325, and the August 2023 motion failed by voice vote.

• About 28 have been moved so far (verify count).

• Confidence motion: moved by the government to prove its majority. V.P. Singh (1990) and Deve Gowda (1997) lost one. Vajpayee lost by one vote (269-270) in 1999. Manmohan Singh won in 2008.

• Resolution: a substantive motion stating the House's opinion or recommendation. All resolutions are put to vote. They can be private members', government or statutory resolutions.
• Statutory resolution: moved under the Constitution or a law. Examples: approving an Emergency, or disapproving an ordinance (Art. 123(2)(a)). Every resolution is a motion, but not every motion is a resolution.

5. Kinds of bills and the money-bill dispute

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• A bill is a draft of a proposed law. It becomes an Act after both Houses pass it and the President gives assent.
• Government bill: drafted by the ministry concerned, checked by the Legislative Department and approved by the Cabinet. Class 11 notes that the Cabinet decides both its substance and its timing.
• Private member's bill: introduced by an MP who is not a minister, after a month's notice. Such bills are taken up on Friday afternoons.
• Only 14 have become law, none since 1970.
• In 2015 the Rajya Sabha passed Tiruchi Siva's transgender rights bill, but the Lok Sabha never took it up.
• In the 17th Lok Sabha, 729 were introduced and only two were discussed (PRS).

Bill	Introduced in	President's prior recommendation	Rajya Sabha's power	If the Houses disagree	President's options
Ordinary	Either House	No	Full	Joint sitting (Art. 108)	Assent, withhold, or return once
Money (Art. 110)	Lok Sabha only	Yes	Can only recommend changes, within 14 days	No joint sitting	Assents by convention
Financial I (Art. 117(1))	Lok Sabha only	Yes	Full	Joint sitting	Assent, withhold, or return once
Financial II (Art. 117(3))	Either House	Needed before the House considers it	Full	Joint sitting	Assent, withhold, or return once
Constitution amendment (Art. 368)	Either House	No	Full (special majority)	No joint sitting	Must assent (24th Amendment, 1971)

• Speaker's certification of money bills: the Speaker's decision that a bill is a money bill is final (Art. 110(3)). The certificate goes with the bill to the Rajya Sabha (Art. 110(4)). Art. 122 bars court challenges based on procedural irregularity.
• K.S. Puttaswamy (Aadhaar, 2018): the majority upheld the Aadhaar Act 2016 as a money bill. Justice Chandrachud's dissent called it "a fraud on the Constitution".
• Rojer Mathew case (2019): a five-judge bench struck down tribunal rules made under the Finance Act 2017. It also referred the money-bill question to a larger bench (status: verify current).
• Related cases:
• PMLA amendments made through Finance Acts were left to the larger bench in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary (2022).

• The electoral bond scheme was struck down in 2024 on free-speech grounds (Art. 19(1)(a)), without deciding the money-bill point.

• What is at stake: using the money-bill route lets the government bypass the Rajya Sabha, the states' House.

6. From bill to Act: the legislative process

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• Before the bill reaches Parliament: the minister proposes it, the Cabinet approves it and the Legislative Department drafts it. Parties, interest groups and coalition partners push for or against it. Class 11 calls law-making "a political course of action".
• Pre-legislative consultation: a 2014 central policy asks ministries to publish draft bills for public comment for at least 30 days. Ministries follow it unevenly (verify PRS data).
• Legislative process in each House (Class 8 explains that "reading" comes from clerks reading bills aloud to MPs who could not read):
• First reading: the House gives leave to introduce the bill, the bill is introduced, and it is published in the Gazette.
• Second reading, general discussion: the House debates the bill's principles. It may take the bill up at once, refer it to a select committee (members of one House who check it clause by clause and hear experts), refer it to a joint committee (members of both Houses), or circulate it for public opinion. Since 1993, presiding officers can also refer bills to DRSCs.
• Second reading, committee stage: the committee examines the bill and reports. Class 11 says "a large part of the discussion on the bills takes place in the committees."
• Second reading, consideration stage: the House votes on the bill clause by clause, with amendments. A clause is one part of a bill, such as the RTE's 6-14 age group (Class 8).

• Third reading: the House votes to pass the bill. Only verbal amendments are allowed.

• In the second House: the same stages follow. That House may pass, amend or reject the bill, or sit on it for six months. Rejection, a disagreement over amendments, or a six-month delay can lead to a joint sitting (Art. 108).

• Worked example: the RTE Act was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2008, studied by a committee and enacted in 2009 (Class 8).
• Weak scrutiny: in the 17th Lok Sabha, 58% of bills passed within two weeks of introduction and 35% had less than an hour of debate (PRS).
• President's assent (Art. 111): the President may assent, withhold assent, or return a non-money bill once for reconsideration. If both Houses pass it again, the President must assent. There is no time limit.
• After assent, the Act is published in the Gazette and comes into force when it is notified.
• Delegated legislation: rules, regulations and bye-laws that the executive makes under an Act. Parliament can hand over the details but not the essential law-making (In re Delhi Laws Act, 1951).

7. Public money: funds, charged expenditure and the Union Budget

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• No tax without authority of law (Art. 265): no tax can be levied or collected without a law. No money can leave the Consolidated Fund without an appropriation law (Art. 266(3)).
• Consolidated Fund of India (Art. 266(1)): receives all revenues, loans raised and loan repayments.
• Public Account of India (Art. 266(2)): money the government holds as a banker or trustee, such as provident funds, small savings and deposits. Payments from it are made by executive order, without a vote. The PAC still examines it.
• Contingency Fund of India (Art. 267; Contingency Fund of India Act 1950): placed at the President's disposal and held by the Finance Secretary. It pays for unforeseen spending until Parliament approves it, and is then refilled from the Consolidated Fund. Its corpus was raised from ₹500 crore to ₹30,000 crore by the Finance Act 2021. Each state has similar funds.
• Charged expenditure (Art. 112(3)): can be discussed but is not voted on (Art. 113(1)). It includes:
• the President's emoluments and office expenses;
• the salaries of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chairman and Deputy Chairman;
• Supreme Court judges' salaries and pensions, and High Court judges' pensions;
• the CAG's salary;
• debt charges and court decrees;
• UPSC expenses (Art. 322).

Keeping these out of the yearly vote protects the independence of these offices.

• Voted expenditure: all other spending. The Lok Sabha must approve it through demands for grants.
• Union Budget: the Annual Financial Statement (Art. 112). The Constitution never uses the word "budget".
• It has been presented on 1 February since 2017. The railway budget, separate since 1924, was merged into it that year.
• It is presented in the Lok Sabha and laid in the Rajya Sabha.

• Class 11 says preparing and presenting the budget is a constitutional duty that gives Parliament control of the purse.

• Interim budget: presented by an outgoing government in an election year, together with a vote on account. By convention it avoids major tax or policy changes. Examples: 1 February 2019 (which announced PM-KISAN) and 1 February 2024, followed by the full budget on 23 July 2024.

8. Passing the budget: grants, cut motions and the Finance Bill

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• The six stages of the budget: 1. Presentation. 2. General discussion in both Houses, with no vote. 3. DRSCs examine the demands during a recess of 3-4 weeks. 4. The Lok Sabha alone votes on the demands (Art. 113(2)). 5. The Appropriation Bill is passed. 6. The Finance Bill is passed.

• Demands for grants: usually one for each ministry or department. The Lok Sabha may approve, reduce or refuse a demand, but cannot increase it.

• Guillotine: on the last day allotted, all remaining demands are put to vote without discussion. About 80% of budgets were voted this way in the 17th Lok Sabha (PRS).
• Appropriation Bill (Art. 114): allows withdrawal of the voted grants plus charged sums. No amendment may change the amounts or purposes. No money can be drawn until it is enacted.
• Finance Bill: gives effect to the tax proposals and is passed as a money bill. Under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1931, declared provisions apply at once, and the bill must be enacted within 75 days.
• Cut motion: moved while demands are being voted, to reduce a demand. If any cut motion is adopted, the government is defeated. The UPA survived cut motions on fuel prices in April 2010.
• Policy cut motion: reduces a demand to Re 1 to disapprove of the policy behind it.
• Economy cut motion: reduces a demand by a stated amount, showing a possible saving.

• Token cut motion: reduces a demand by ₹100 to raise a specific grievance.

• Other grants (Arts. 115-116):

• Supplementary grant: when the sum voted is not enough.
• Additional grant: for a new service not in the budget.
• Excess grant: voted after the year ends for overspending, only after the PAC approves.
• Exceptional grant: for a purpose outside the current service of any year.
• Vote of credit: a lump sum for an unexpected need, like a "blank cheque".

• Token grant: Re 1, when savings elsewhere can be shifted to pay for a new service.

• Vote on account (Art. 116(1)(a)): an advance grant, usually for two months (longer in election years), to keep the government running until the budget is passed. It is not the same as an interim budget.

9. The committee system and the financial committees

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• Parliamentary committee: a small group of MPs that studies bills, budgets or issues in depth between sittings. Class 11 calls committees "miniature legislatures" whose suggestions are rarely rejected.
• Why committees matter: sessions are short and the House is large. Committees give time, expertise and cross-party work away from the cameras.
• Standing committee: permanent, with members reconstituted from time to time. Ad hoc committee: set up for one task, such as a select committee on a bill, and dissolved once it reports.
• What happens to their reports: recommendations are advisory, but ministries must file action-taken replies.
• Class 8 example: the Health Committee asked states to create separate Ayush departments. The ministry replied that public health is a state subject.

• Kalpana Mehta (2018): courts may refer to committee reports, but the reports cannot be challenged in court.

• Public Accounts Committee (first set up in 1921 under the Government of India Act 1919):

• 22 members (15 Lok Sabha, 7 Rajya Sabha), elected each year by proportional representation (single transferable vote);
• ministers cannot be members, and by convention since 1967 an opposition member chairs it;
• it examines CAG audit reports to check that spending was legal and proper, and it approves excess grants;

• limits: it works after the money is spent, cannot question policy, and its findings are advisory.

• Estimates Committee (1950, on John Mathai's recommendation):

• 30 members, all from the Lok Sabha;

• it suggests economies and efficiency within the approved policy, and is called the "continuous economy committee".

• Committee on Public Undertakings (1964, on the Krishna Menon Committee's advice):

• 22 members (15 Lok Sabha, 7 Rajya Sabha);
• it examines the reports, accounts and CAG audits of public sector undertakings (PSUs), but not major government policy or day-to-day management.

10. Departmental committees, JPCs and other committees

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• Departmentally related standing committee (DRSC):
• 17 were set up in 1993 and expanded to 24 in 2004;
• each has 31 members (21 Lok Sabha, 10 Rajya Sabha) and a one-year term; ministers are barred;
• they examine demands for grants, bills, annual reports and long-term policies, but not day-to-day administration.

• (NCERT, Class 11: "since 1983… over twenty such committees"; correct facts: 1993 and 24.)

• Share of bills sent to committees (PRS):

• 60% in the 14th Lok Sabha;
• 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha;
• about 26% in the 16th Lok Sabha;
• 16% in the 17th Lok Sabha;

• Monsoon Session 2025: 5 of the 13 bills introduced went to committees (verify current trend).

• Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC): an ad hoc committee with members from both Houses. It is set up by a motion in one House that the other agrees to.

• Inquiry JPCs: Bofors (1987), the securities scam (1992), 2G spectrum (2011).

• Bill JPCs: Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024; the 129th Amendment Bill 2024 on simultaneous elections; the 130th Amendment Bill 2025 on removing detained ministers (verify current).

• Business Advisory Committee: chaired by the Speaker or the Chairman. It sets the House's timetable.

• Committee on Private Members' Bills and Resolutions (Lok Sabha): chaired by the Deputy Speaker. It sorts private members' bills and allots time to them.
• Committee on Petitions: examines petitions on bills and on public matters.
• Committee on Government Assurances: checks that ministers keep the promises they make in the House.
• Committee on Subordinate Legislation: checks that rules made by the executive stay within the parent Act.
• Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes: a joint committee of 30 (20 Lok Sabha, 10 Rajya Sabha).
• Committee on Empowerment of Women: a joint committee of 30, set up in 1997.
• Joint Committee on Offices of Profit: 15 members (10 Lok Sabha, 5 Rajya Sabha). It advises which posts should disqualify MPs.
• Consultative committees: informal groups of MPs set up by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and chaired by ministers. They are not parliamentary committees.

11. Parliamentary privileges, contempt and ethics

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• Parliamentary privileges: special rights that let the Houses, their committees and their members work without obstruction.
• Art. 105 covers Parliament and Art. 194 the state legislatures.
• They also extend to ministers and the Attorney General (Art. 105(4)).

• Class 11 says their "main purpose" is to let members represent the people and control the executive.

• Individual privileges:

• freedom of speech in the House (Art. 105(1)), limited by Art. 121, which bars discussing a judge's conduct;
• immunity from court action for anything said or any vote given (Art. 105(2));

• freedom from civil arrest during a session and for 40 days before and after it (CPC s.135A). There is no protection from criminal arrest or preventive detention.

• Collective privileges:

• publishing proceedings (Art. 361A; Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act 1977);
• excluding strangers and holding secret sittings;
• making its own rules (Art. 118);
• punishing contempt;
• being told at once when a member is arrested;

• the bar on courts inquiring into parliamentary proceedings on grounds of procedural irregularity (Art. 122). Courts can still review illegality or unconstitutionality.

• Under Art. 105(3), other privileges were to stay as in the UK House of Commons until Parliament defined them by law. The 44th Amendment (1978) removed this reference to the House of Commons.

• Breach of privilege: violating a specific privilege. Contempt of the House: any act that obstructs the House, its members or its officers. Contempt is the wider category.

• How a privilege case moves: 1. A member gives a privilege motion, for example alleging that a minister misled the House. 2. The presiding officer consents and refers it to the Committee of Privileges (Lok Sabha: 15 members; Rajya Sabha: 10, headed by the Deputy Chairman). 3. The House decides the punishment: reprimand, suspension, imprisonment or expulsion.

• Ethics Committee: oversees members' conduct. It was set up in the Rajya Sabha in 1997 and the Lok Sabha in 2000. On its report, the Lok Sabha expelled Mahua Moitra on 8 December 2023 (status of her challenge: verify).

• Privileges and the courts:

Case	What the court held
M.S.M. Sharma (Searchlight, 1959)	Privileges prevail over press freedom (Art. 19(1)(a)).
Keshav Singh case (Special Reference No. 1 of 1964)	Courts can examine a House's jailing of a citizen for contempt.
Raja Ram Pal case (2007)	A House can expel members, but courts can review the expulsion in a limited way.
P.V. Narasimha Rao case (1998)	MPs who took bribes to vote in 1993 were immune under Art. 105(2).
Sita Soren case (2024, seven judges)	Overruled Narasimha Rao: bribery is not protected by Arts. 105 or 194.

• Codification of privileges: the debate on writing the privileges into law under Art. 105(3).
• For: certainty, press freedom, and protection from arbitrary punishment.
• Against: loss of flexibility, and the privileges would become open to Art. 13 review.

12. Reforming parliamentary procedure

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• Fewer sittings: 677 in the 1st Lok Sabha (Class 8 table) compared with 274 in the 17th (PRS).
• Disruption: Rajya Sabha productivity fell to 35.75% in 2018 (Class 8). In the Monsoon Session 2025, the Lok Sabha worked 29% and the Rajya Sabha 34% of scheduled time (PRS).
• Other symptoms: Question Hour is mostly lost, bills pass in days, about 80% of budgets are guillotined, the Deputy Speaker post has been empty since 2019, and private members' business has been dropped.
• Minimum sitting days: the NCRWC (2002) proposed at least 120 days a year for the Lok Sabha and 100 for the Rajya Sabha, along with a fixed annual calendar.
• Scrutiny reforms:
• send bills to committees as a matter of routine, and give DRSCs two-year terms;
• let committees examine the budget before voting, and guillotine fewer demands;
• hold recorded votes on major bills;

• introduce opposition days and a Prime Minister's question time.

• Reforms to the presiding officers:

• elect the Deputy Speaker promptly;
• make the Speaker neutral;

• give defection cases to an independent tribunal (Keisham Meghachandra, 2020).

• Rights and rules:

• balance Rule 374A with the opposition's rights (Ashish Shelar, 2022);
• codify privileges;
• get a settled money-bill test from the larger bench;
• carry out real pre-legislative consultation;

• give MPs research support.

• Technology:

• Sansad TV (2021) merged Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV.

• The National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA), a mission-mode project under "One Nation, One Application", aims to make state legislatures paperless (number of legislatures onboarded: verify current).

• The limit of reform: procedure works only when the majority accepts that it must still justify itself. Class 11 says control needs time, interested members and willingness to compromise.

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Exam angles

Prelims — high-yield facts and traps

• Devices:
• Adjournment motion: Lok Sabha only, 50 members, censure element.
• No-confidence motion: Rule 198, 50 members, no reasons needed.
• Censure motion: needs reasons; the government need not resign.
• Calling attention: 1954, in the rules.
• Zero Hour: 1962, not in the rules.

• Rule 193: no vote. Rule 184: vote. Rule 267: Rajya Sabha suspension of business.

• Questions: starred (oral, with supplementaries); unstarred (written); short notice (less than ten days, oral if the minister agrees).

• Who ends what:
• Adjournment and adjournment sine die: the presiding officer.
• Prorogation: the President; pending bills survive.
• Dissolution: the President; this is when bills lapse.

• Bills that survive dissolution: those pending in the Rajya Sabha that were never passed by the Lok Sabha, those awaiting assent, those returned by the President, and those notified for a joint sitting.

• Presiding officers:

• Quorum is one-tenth (Art. 100(3)).
• Speaker's removal needs a majority of all then members and 14 days' notice (Art. 94(c)).
• The pro tem Speaker is appointed by the President.

• The Rajya Sabha Chairman is not a member of the House.

• Budget articles:

• Art. 112: Annual Financial Statement.
• Art. 113: demands; Lok Sabha only; cannot be increased.
• Art. 114: Appropriation Bill.
• Art. 115: supplementary, additional and excess grants.
• Art. 116: vote on account, vote of credit, exceptional grant.
• Arts. 265-267: taxes and the three funds.
• Cut motions: Re 1 (policy), a stated amount (economy), ₹100 (token).

• Finance Bill within 75 days. Contingency Fund ₹30,000 crore (2021).

• Committees:

• PAC: 22 members (15+7), 1921, opposition chair.
• Estimates: 30 members, Lok Sabha only, 1950.
• COPU: 22 members, 1964.
• DRSCs: 24 committees × 31 members.
• The Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee is headed by the Deputy Chairman.

• The Private Members' Bills Committee is headed by the Deputy Speaker.

• Cases: Searchlight (1959), Keshav Singh (1964), Raja Ram Pal (2007), Narasimha Rao (1998) overruled by Sita Soren (2024), Rojer Mathew (2019).

• Traps:
• "Zero Hour is in the rules": FALSE.
• "The Rajya Sabha can move an adjournment motion": FALSE.
• "A passed censure motion forces resignation": FALSE.
• "A vote on account is the same as an interim budget": FALSE.
• "Private members' bills cannot become law": FALSE (14 have).
• "Consultative committees are parliamentary committees": FALSE.

Mains — GS-II themes

1. Declining legislative scrutiny: few bills referred to committees, guillotined budgets, bills rushed through, and Question Hour lost. Causes and reforms.
2. The office of the Speaker: neutrality, deciding defection cases and the tribunal proposal, money-bill certification, and the constitutional duty to elect a Deputy Speaker.
3. The money-bill route and bicameralism: the Aadhaar case, the Finance Act 2017, and judicial review versus Art. 122.
4. Privileges versus fundamental rights: press freedom, codification, Sita Soren, and ethics committees and expulsions.
5. Disruption and discipline: mass suspensions versus opposition rights, and the argument that disruption is a form of protest.
6. Financial accountability through the PAC and CAG: audit after the fact, follow-up through action-taken reports, and budget scrutiny by DRSCs.
7. JPCs: when they add accountability and when they turn partisan.

Current-affairs hooks

• PRS end-of-session reports on productivity, committee referrals and Question Hour, and PRS reviews of state assemblies.
• Suspensions of MPs, privilege notices and ethics-committee cases in each session.
• JPC reports on the 129th and 130th Amendment Bills, and opposition demands for inquiry JPCs (verify current).
• The Supreme Court larger bench on money bills, and defection petitions pending before Speakers.
• Interim budgets in election years, supplementary demands, and excess grants cleared on the PAC's advice.