Powers of Parliament

The parliament of India is found as an apex body in terms of formulating legislation for its citizens of India. Any kind of amendments regarding the articles which are incorporated within the Indian constitution can be done with the support and voting of members of parliament. All the residual power is also vested to the parliament of india. All kinds of legislation are passed through the intervention of different ministers and MPs who are in the parliament session. In this report, different powers of parliament and its members and its structure have been highlighted. 

Framework of Indian Parliament 

The parliament of India consists of two houses and the president of India. The two houses of the parliament are the “Rajya Sabha” and the “Lok Sabha”. The “rajya Sabha” is also known as the upper house whereas the “lok sabha” is referred to as the lower house of the parliament. The rajya sabha has 250 members capacity but now, the rajya Sabha of Indian parliament consists of 245 people. Among the 245 people, members of the “vidhan sabha” or “state legislative assembly” elects 233 members and the 12 people are nominated by the president of India. The 12 people nominated by the president are from the background of social services, science, literature, and arts. The MPs of the “rajya sabha” are elected by the “electoral college”. It can be found within the structure of the “Indian parliament” that the “Rajya sabha” is the permanent body which is also described in the constitutional article. However it can be noticed that the lok sabha is not a permanent body after every 5 years it gets dissolved by the president of india.

On the contrary, the “rajya sabha” being the permanent body of the parliament, it cannot be dissolved but the ⅔rd members of “the rajya sabha” gets retired after every 2 years. Therefore it can be said that the tenure of any “rajya sabha” member is about 6 years. The members of “lok Sabha” get retired after every 5 years after dissolving the lok sabha by the president. The “Lok Sabha” has about 552 members. However currently, 543 members are present in the lok Sabha of Indian parliament. The member of the lok sabha is found to be directly elected by the Indian citizen on the basis of “universal adult franchise”. On the contrary, the members of “rajya sabha” are not directly elected by the indian people as the members are elected indirectly. The elected MP’s by the Indian citizen go to the parliament and the “rajya Sabha” members are elected by those elected MP’s. Therefore it can be noticed that the members of the “upper house” are elected indirectly. 

Powers vested to the Indian parliament

The main power of the Indian parliament is that the member of the parliament gets the legislative power. The legislature of the country is formed by the parliament. All the “legislative power” is vested in the Indian parliament. Any kind of developmental or constructive policies are made by the parliament with the aim of the country’s entire development.  

• “Legislative power”: Parliament can formulate laws on the subjects which are mentioned in the concurrent list and union list of the Indian constitution. However it has no power to formulate laws in the state subjects. The subjects that come under the union list are defence, transport, trade and commerce, and many more. However the parliament can formulate laws in the state matter if any the situation of emergency persists within the state. In this regard it can be said that an emergency in the state is proclaimed by the Indian president as per the “article 356” if any kind of disturbance occurs within the state. 
• “Residual power”: parliament has found to enjoy residual power as per the article 248. The article says that parliament has exclusive rights to formulate any law with respect to any matter not mentioned in the state list or concurrent list. 

• Power to amend constitution: the parliament has the sole power to make any kind of amendments within the constitutional articles. However the apex judicial body, Supreme Court has the power to review that as well. 

Power given to the Members of the parliament

The members of parliament are found to conduct different responsibilities and that are divided into two categories such as representative responsibility and “Power of the purse responsibility”. 

• “Representative responsibility”: the members of the parliament have the responsibility to represent the aspirations and views of thousands of people of their own constituency. All the citizens of India cannot reach the parliament to showcase their needs and demands. Therefore the elected members of their constituency have the responsibility to represent those demands in the parliament session. 

•  “Power of the purse responsibility”: the expenditure and revenue proposed by the Indian government is overseas and approved by the members of the parliament. Therefore the members of the parliament act as protectors of the government purse. 

Conclusion

It can be concluded that “parliament” is the “apex body of India” in terms of making legislation for the Indian citizens. The parliament is made up of the president and the two houses such as “rajya Sabha” and “lok Sabha”. Different policies and bills are passed by the parliament houses and it becomes an act after getting ascent from the Indian president. Parliament enjoys “residual power” as well as amending power of “constitutional articles”.