Houses of Parliament

‘Parliament’ refers to the national legislature, and the” legislature of the States” is described as the State legislature. The Parliament has the ability as well as authority to pass legislation. It also has the authority to enact new laws as well as alter or repeal current ones.

Bicameral legislature- Indian Parliament has two Houses, and hence is referred to as a bicameral legislature. The two houses are as follows:

• The council of States, or Rajya Sabha, is the upper house of India’s bicameral parliament
• The House of the People or Lok Sabha is the lower house of India’s bicameral parliament

For States: The Constitution has given the States the option of demonstrating either a unicameral or bicameral legislature. Presently, only 6 States own a bicameral legislature.

Rajya Sabha

• The base of representation: It represents the States of India
• Indirectly elected body: The elected members of the State Legislative Assembly elect the members of the Rajya Sabha
• Two different principles of representation:
  •  Symmetrical representation: To offer equivalent representation to all the parts of the country, disregarding their size or population.
  • Representation of parts of the country according to their population: Regions with larger populations have more representatives in the second chamber. So, States with larger populations get more representatives than States with smaller populations. For example, Uttar Pradesh sends 31 members to the Rajya Sabha, while Sikkim has only one seat.

Election to the Rajya Sabha

• Rajya Sabha members have opted for a term of 6 years.
  • They can get re-elected
  • Rajya Sabha is never fully dissolved
• Tenure: All members of the Rajya Sabha do not finalize their terms at the same time
• • • Permanent House of the Parliament: Every 2 years, 1/3rd of members of the Rajya Sabha complete their term, and elections  are held for those 33% seats, as it were
    • Advantage: The meeting of the Rajya Sabha can be called for conducting urgent business even when the Lok Sabha is dissolved and elections are yet to take place

• Nominated members in Rajya Sabha:
  It has twelve such members apart from the elected members. The President nominates these members.These nominations are made up of those who have made their mark in fields of  literature, science, art, and welfare work.

Lok Sabha

• The lower house of the parliament, it is made up of members who are elected by Indian residents from various constituencies by voting in direct elections and exercising their voting rights
• In terms of money, the Lok Sabha has greater authority. The Rajya Sabha cannot reject the government’s budget or any other money-related measure after it has been passed by the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha may only postpone it for 14 days or make modifications to it. However, these amendments may or may not be accepted by the Lok Sabha
• Most notably, the Lok Sabha has veto power over the Council of Ministers.
• We can thus say that the Lok sabha exercises supreme powers over the Rajya Sabha.

Election to the Lok Sabha

• The people directly elect for the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies
• For elections, The whole country (State, in the State Legislative Assembly) is divided into territorial constituencies of about equal population
• One representative is elected from each constituency through all-around adult suffrage
• At present, 543 constituencies have not changed since the 1971 census. 

Tenure of the Lok Sabha members

• The Lok Sabha is elected for a tenure of 5 years
• It can be dissolved before five years if no party or coalition can form the government or if the Prime Minister advises the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha and hold fresh elections.

Conclusion

We have looked into the two houses of the Indian parliament in this chapter. In our country, the Parliament is divided into two Houses. The Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People are the two Houses (Lok Sabha). The President of India is a member of Parliament, however, she/he does not sit in either House. We also looked into the election procedure and functions of these houses.