Indian Polity Quiz: Parliament

Article 79 says: "There shall be a Parliament for the Union which shall consist of the President and two Houses to be known respectively as the Council of States and the House of the People." The President is therefore part of Parliament even though he or she sits in neither…

Under Article 80, the Rajya Sabha consists of 12 members nominated by the President and not more than 238 representatives of the States and Union Territories, a maximum of 250.

Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar was elected the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 1952 and served until his death in 1956.

After a general election, the Speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha vacates office just before the new House first meets.

Article 85(1) says the President shall summon each House to meet at such time and place as he or she thinks fit, but six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session.

Under Article 100(3), the quorum to constitute a meeting of either House of Parliament is one-tenth of the total number of members of the House, including the Speaker or the person acting as presiding officer.

In the Lok Sabha, Question Hour runs from 11 am to noon, and the period that begins at noon, when members raise urgent matters of public importance without the usual advance notice, is popularly called Zero Hour.

Under Article 109, a money bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. After the Lok Sabha passes it, the bill goes to the Rajya Sabha, which must return it within 14 days from the date of receipt, with or without recommendations.

When the two Houses disagree on an ordinary bill, because one House rejects it, the Houses disagree on amendments, or more than six months pass without the other House passing it, the President can summon a joint sitting to resolve the deadlock.

The Constitution never uses the word "budget"; it speaks instead of the "Annual Financial Statement", a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for the year, which the President causes to be laid before both Houses under Article 112.

The Public Accounts Committee has 22 members: 15 elected by the Lok Sabha and 7 elected by the Rajya Sabha, every year, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote.

The Estimates Committee of independent India was first constituted in 1950, on the recommendation of John Mathai, the Finance Minister.

The Tenth Schedule was added by the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985 to curb the practice of legislators switching parties for office or money.

The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, reserves one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha, the State Legislative Assemblies and the Legislative Assembly of Delhi, including one-third of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Sengol is a gold-plated silver sceptre topped by a figure of Nandi. In the Chola tradition, a new king received such a sceptre from a high priest as a symbol of the transfer of power and of the ruler's duty to govern justly.