A Brief Note On Legislative Powers

India is governed by a Parliamentary system modelled after the British system, with two Houses of Parliament. The President of India is the national or titular Head of State, holding the same role as the Queen or King of England. Despite being the state’s executive head, the President also wields several legislative responsibilities critical to the country’s legislation. India’s Parliament is divided into two chambers. It comprises two houses, the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, and the President of India. The two chambers of Parliament work together to develop laws. Legislative Powers of the President of India include the signature, which is enforced throughout the country. Let’s now look into the Legislative Powers of Parliament.

Legislative Powers Of Parliament

Our Constitution covers a wide range of topics grouped into three lists: state, union, and concurrent. As a result, the parliamentary law takes precedence over the state’s legislative statute under the concurrent list.

When it comes to the Concurrent List, where state legislatures and Parliament share jurisdiction, the union legislation will take precedence over the states unless the state law has already acquired presidential assent. However, the Legislative Power of Parliament can legislate at any time that adds to, amends, modifies, or repeals a law passed by a state legislature.

• In the following conditions, the Parliament can make laws on goods on the State List
• If an emergency is declared or any state is placed under President’s Rule (Article 356), the Parliament has the authority to adopt laws on items on the State List
• According to Article 249, the Parliament can make laws on items on the State List if the Rajya Sabha passes a resolution with a 2/3 majority of its members present and voting that making laws on any item on the State List is required in the national interest
• It can make laws on State List items if it is essential for the fulfilment of international agreements or treaties with foreign countries, according to Article 253
• According to Article 252, the Parliament can create laws for those states if the legislatures of two or more states pass a resolution stating that a parliamentary law on any subject included in the State List is desirable

Functions Of Legislature 

Following are the few functions of the legislature

1. Law Making – An essential job of the Legislature in modern times is to make laws. Both members of Parliament and Ministers can introduce ordinary Bills in the Lower House, but ministers can only introduce money Bills. Any Bill can be accepted or rejected by a majority vote of the members of the Legislature. Members of the Legislature, often known as the Parliament, have complete freedom of speech and criticism of the government’s policies.
2. Control Over The Budget – The legislative has jurisdiction over the executive’s (government’s) budget, and the executive cannot spend a single ‘paisa’ without consent. Members of Parliament in England and India can impose a cut on any budget demand, but they cannot increase it.
3. Control Over Executive – The Legislature, or Parliament, has complete power over the executive, or Council of Ministers, in a Parliamentary Government. The Parliament has the authority to ask the Cabinet Questions and Supplementary Questions. Parliament can use a No-Confidence Motion to oust the Cabinet. It has the power to file Adjournment and Censure Motions against the Cabinet. The Parliament can appoint a committee to probe the ministers’ affairs.

Legislative powers of the President of India

The legislative powers of the President are :

• He has the authority to summon or prorogue Parliament and dissolve the Lok Sabha
• He can also call a joint session of both Houses of Parliament, presided over by the Lok Sabha Speaker
• He has the right to address Parliament at the start of the first session following each general election and the first session of each year
• He has the authority to send messages to the Houses of Parliament, whether related to a pending bill in the Parliament or otherwise
• When the offices of both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker become vacant, he has the authority to appoint any member of the Lok Sabha to preside over its proceedings
• He has the authority to appoint two members of the Anglo-Indian community to the Lok Sabha

Conclusion 

We have given the functions of the legislatures in democratic countries. The situation in totalitarian countries is quite different. In these countries, the executive has great control over the Legislature; hence the executive is not responsible to the Legislature. Its functions like law-making and the passage of the budget are nominal. The Legislature acts according to the directions of the executive. Thus, in democratic countries, the legislatures exercise great control over the executive, but in totalitarian regimes, the Legislature is controlled by the executive. In this article, we discussed the Legislative powers, Legislative powers of Parliament, and Legislative powers of the President of India.