INDIAN PARLIAMENT

The first organ of Union/Central Govt. is legislature. The function of the legislature is to make laws. This legislature organ is called Parliament in India. Our Parliament makes laws. Parliament is a constitutional body under Article 79 of our Constitution.

The very important question is

Parliament Consists of …………

Your answer should be

President + Lok Sabha + Rajya Sabha

Our parliament is bicameral i,e, we have two houses of parliament

(1) Lower house, also known as house of people, house of public or popular house or Lok Sabha

(2) Upper house also known as council of states as well as Rajya Sabha

If Parliament of a country just have one house, then it is called as Unicameral Parliament.e,g, Parliament of Maldives is Unicameral.

The elections of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are conducted by Election Commission of India.

The members of Lok Sabha are directly elected by public and their duty is to protect the interests of public.

The members of Rajya Sabha are indirectly elected and their duty is to protect the interest of their Statesfrom where they have been elected.

The tenure of Lok Sabha is five years but tenure is not fixed. Lok Sabha can be dissolved before completion of its tenure. The power to dissolve Lok Sabha lies with President.

The tenure of Rajya Sabha -- Rajya Sabha is a permanent house i,e. Rajya Sabha can never be dissolved. Rajya Sabha always remains in existence.

The tenure of a member of Lok Sabha is 5 years but tenure is not fixed. The moment president dissolves the Lok Sabha, the membership of its members ceases. As stated above president can dissolve Lok Sabha before completion of its tenure. So tenure of a member of Loh Sabha is five years but not fixed.

The tenure of a member of Rajya Sabha is 6 years and tenure is fixed because Rajya Sabha always remains in existence. Rajya Sabha can never be dissolved.

The present strength of Lok Sabha is 543 members and maximum strength can be 550. The maximum strength of 550 has been freezed till 2026. Earlier President could nominate two members from Anglo Indian Community to Lok Sabha but this provision has been removed by 126th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2019. (104th Constitutional Amendment Act 2019) effective w.e.f. 25/1/2020.

The present strength of Rajya Sabha is 233 + 12 = 245 and max strength can be 238+12 = 250.

233 members are elected and 12 members are nominated by president among distinguished persons in basically six fields (Law, Literature, Science & Technology, Sports, Social Work & Gandhian Thought).

The Minimum age to be member of Lok Sabha is 25 years and for Rajya Sabha is 30 years.

The Lok Sabha members are directly elected by public. Our country has been divided into 543 Lok Sabha Constituencies on the basis of population. One Lok Sabha member is elected from each constituency. The system of election is known as Single Transferable Vote System (first – Past – The – Post or FPTP). The max representation is from UP state (80 members) whereas.

minimum representation isat least one member from each state.

List of some states with their representation in Lok Sabha.

UP - 80

PB - 13

HR - 10

RAJ - 25

BIHAR - 40

J&K - 5

LADAKH - 1

DELHI - 7

SIKKIM - 1

MIZORAM - 1 etc.

As Lok Sabha members are representatives of public, their duty is to look after & protect the interests of public.

Rajya Sabha members are indirectly elected. They are elected by elected members of Legislative Assemblies ( Vidhan Sabha ) of 28 states and elected members of Legislative Assemblies of 3 Union territories namely Delhi, Puducherry and J&K. Rajya Sabha members are representatives of states and their duty is to take care and protect the interests of their respective states. The states and UT’s have representation in R.S. on the basis of their population .Max Representation is of UP state with 31 members and minimum one seat from each state.

List of some states with their representation in Rajya Sabha.

UP - 31

PB - 7

HR - 5

RAJ - 10

BIHAR - 16

J&K - 4

SIKKIM - 1

MIZORAM - 1

DELHI - 3

Puducherry - 1 etc.

The rest of the five UT’s have no representation in Rajya Sabha as these UT’s have no legislative assemblies and Rajya Sabha members are elected by elected members of legislative assemblies

The Head of Lok Sabha is known as Speaker. Speaker presides the proceedings of Lok Sabha. Speaker is a member of Lok Sabha and is elected by members of Lok Sabha.

Important Questions

The first speaker of Lok Sabha – Sh G.V. Mavlankar

Present Speaker – Sh. Om Birla

First women speaker – Smt. Meera Kumar.

If speaker want to resign, he gives his resignation to Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha.

The Head of Rajya Sabha is Known as chairperson.

Our Vice President is Ex. Officio head of Rajya Sabha i.e. chairperson of Rajya Sabha.Chairperson of Rajya Sabha is not a member of Rajya Sabhabut is head of Rajya Sabha. He Presides the proceedings of Rajya Sabha.

First Chairperson of Rajya Sabha – Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

Present Chairperson of Rajya Sabha – Sh. V. Naidu

In the absence of Speaker, Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha presides the proceedings of Lok Sabha. Dy. Speaker is a member of Lok Sabha but normally not from ruling party but from opposition party. Presently this post is vacant.

In Rajya Sabha if chairperson is absent, vice chairperson presides the proceedings of the house. Vice chairperson is one of the member of Rajya Sabha and generally not from the ruling party. Present vice chairperson of Rajya Sabha is Sh. Harivansh Narain from Janta Dal United Party ( JDU )

Lok Sabha members are elected simultaneously during general elections normally held after every five years and remain member till the Lok Sabha is dissolved by the president. In 2019, we elected 17th Lok Sabha. In 1951-52, the elections for first Lok Sabha were held. First Lok Sabha was officially constituted on. 17/4/1952. Art. 81 of our Constitution states about composition of Lok Sabha.

Rajya Sabha was officially constituted on 3/4/1952. The last meeting of Constituent Assembly was held on 24th Jan 1950 in which it elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as first president of India. Thereafter Constituent Assembly was converted into Rajya Sabha. The same Rajya Sabha has been continuing as present Rajya Sabha. It is a permanent house and can never be dissolved.

Rajya Sabha was officially constituted on 3/4/1952. The last meeting of Constituent Assembly was held on 24th Jan 1950 in which it elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as first president of India. Thereafter Constituent Assembly was converted into Rajya Sabha. The same Rajya Sabha has been continuing as present Rajya Sabha. It is a permanent house and can never be dissolved.

1/3rd members of Rajya Sabha retire after every 2 years after completing their tenure of six tenure e.g., if 1/3rd members were elected in 2010, they got retired in 2016, 1/3rd members got elected in 2012 and retired in 2018, 1/3rd member got elected in 2014 and retired in 2020. So after every two years 1/3rd members retire and elections are held to elect 1/3rd members of Rajya Sabha.

The Leader of House Lok Sabha – Prime Minister – Narendra Modi

The Leader of House Rajya Sabha – Vacant (Earlier Thavarchand Gahlot was leader of House Rajya Sabha who has been appointed as new governor of Karnataka)

Opposition Leader Lok Sabha – Vacant (but Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary is Symbolic leader of opposition.Lok Sabha)

Opposition Leader Rajya Sabha – Mallikarjun Kharge

First Leader of opposition Lok Sabha – Ram Subhag Singh

First Leader of opposition Rajya Sabha – Shyam Nandan Mishra

Present Nominated Members of Rajya Sabha

Important Question:

To be a recognised leader of opposition of Lok Sabha, opposition party must secure at least 10% of the total seats of Lok Sabha. Congress party is the largest opposition party with just 52 Lok Sabha members (3 short of required 55 members). So this position is vacant. JOINT SITTING of PARLIAMENT is called by our President. JOINT SITTING of PARLIAMENT is presided by SPEAKER of Lok Sabha.

New Parliament Building

Our Parliament building is more than 100 years old. We need a new building to accommodate more members in future. The building should be technologically better with more security features and the prevailing requirements.

New Parliament building is being constructed at a cost of Rs. 970 crore and is expected to be completed by the year 2022. The foundation stone of this building was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10th Dec. 2020. It can accommodate. 888 Lok Sabha Members and 384 Rajya Sabha Members. Ex. President late Sh. Pranav Mukherjee urged that the strength of Lok Sabha should be increased to 1000.

Important Note: By 126th Constitution Amendment Bill 2019 (104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019) reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies has been extended for another ten years (i,e from 70 years to 80 years). Now reservation will be available till 25/1/2030 which was ending on 25/1/2020. The 104th CAA 2019 came into force on 25/1/2020. Also by this amendment, the provision of nomination of two seats from Anglo Indian Community to Lok Sabha by President and one seats in State Legislative Assemblies by State Governors has been removed.

In Britain Name of Parliament – British Parliament

Lower House – (House of Commons) – 650 members

Upper House – (House of Lords) – 800 members

In USA–Name of Parliament – Congress
Lower House

(House of Representatives) – 435 members

Upper House –
(Senate) – 100 members

In Pakistan – Name of Parliament – Majlis - e- Shora

Lower House (National Assembly) – 342 members

Upper House (Senate) – 104 members

Names of Parliament of Some Countries

(1) Afghanistan - National Assembly

(2) Bangladesh - Jatia Sansad

(3) Iran - Majlis

(4) Israel - Knesset

(5) Japan - Diet

(6) Nepal - Rashtriya Panchayat

(7) Russia - Federal Assembly (Duma)

(8) Germany - Bundastag

(9) Maldives - People’s Majlis

Maldives’s Parliament has just one House i,e Unicameral Parliament.

USA upper House (Senate) is considered as the most powerful upper house whereas British upper house (house of Lords) is considered as the weakest upper house in the world. Generally the strength of lower house is more as compared to upper house but Britain is an exception. In India both houses are almost equally powerful. On some issues like Confidence Motion, Money Bill, Financial Bill, accountability of Union Council of Ministers to Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha is more powerful whereas on issues like removal of vice President from his post, any transfer of a subject of state list to union list, allowing union parliament to make law on a subject of state list etc, Rajya Sabha is more powerful.