Parliament of India: Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Bills and PYQs

Parliament makes the country's laws, controls every rupee the government spends and holds ministers to account every day it sits. It is also the richest source of number questions in Polity: 550, 543, 250, 245, 12, 25, 30, one-tenth, fourteen days, six months. This note puts every one of those numbers in context, so that you remember not just the figure but what it belongs to.

What Parliament is

Under Article 79, Parliament consists of the President and two Houses: the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha). The President is not a member of either House, but is part of Parliament because no bill becomes law without the President's assent. The provisions on Parliament are in Part V, Chapter II, Articles 79 to 122.

The two Houses compared

• The 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are chosen by the President for special knowledge or experience in literature, science, art and social service.
• Uttar Pradesh has the most seats in both Houses: 80 in the Lok Sabha and 31 in the Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 47 for Scheduled Tribes.
• The two seats the President could fill with Anglo-Indian members were ended by the 104th Amendment (2019), which is why the Lok Sabha's maximum is now 550.
• The allocation of seats is frozen on the basis of the 1971 census until the first census after 2026.

The presiding officers

• Speaker (Article 93): elected by the Lok Sabha from among its members. The Speaker does not vacate office when the House is dissolved, but continues until the new House first meets; resigns by writing to the Deputy Speaker; and can be removed by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members of the House after 14 days' notice. The Speaker has only a casting vote, decides whether a bill is a money bill, presides over joint sittings and decides disqualification cases under the anti-defection law.
• Pro tem Speaker: a member, usually the senior-most, appointed by the President to swear in newly elected members and preside until the Speaker is elected.
• Chairman of the Rajya Sabha: the Vice-President, who is not a member of the House; the Rajya Sabha elects a Deputy Chairman from among its members.
• The first Speaker was G.V. Mavalankar (1952), the first woman Speaker was Meira Kumar (2009), and Om Birla has been Speaker since 2019.

Sessions, quorum and daily business

• Sessions (Article 85): the President summons each House so that no more than six months pass between two sessions; Parliament must therefore meet at least twice a year. By convention it holds three sessions: Budget (February–May), Monsoon (July–September) and Winter (November–December).
• Adjournment, prorogation and dissolution: the presiding officer adjourns a sitting; the President prorogues, or ends, a session; and only the Lok Sabha can be dissolved, by the President.
• Quorum (Article 100): one-tenth of the total members of the House, including the presiding officer.
• Question Hour: the first hour of a Lok Sabha sitting, when members ask ministers questions (the Rajya Sabha has held it at noon since 2014). Starred questions get oral answers and allow supplementary questions; unstarred questions get written answers.
• Zero Hour: in the Lok Sabha, the time just after Question Hour, when members raise urgent matters without notice (in the Rajya Sabha it now comes first). It is an Indian innovation, in use since 1962, and is not mentioned in the rules.
• Leader of the Opposition: the leader of the largest opposition party, recognised if the party holds at least one-tenth of the seats; the post has had statutory recognition since 1977.

How a bill becomes law

A joint sitting (Article 108) is summoned by the President and presided over by the Speaker. It can be used only for ordinary bills, never for money bills or constitutional amendment bills, and the bill passes by a majority of the members of both Houses present and voting. It has been held only three times: for the Dowry Prohibition Bill (1961), the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill (1978) and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill (2002).

The Budget and Parliament's control of money

• The Constitution calls the Budget the Annual Financial Statement (Article 112); it is laid before both Houses in the President's name. Since 2017 the Railway Budget has been merged into it and it is presented on 1 February.
• Demands for grants are voted only by the Lok Sabha (Article 113), and money is withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund of India through an Appropriation Act (Article 114). A vote on account (Article 116) lets the government spend until the full Budget is passed.
• The Public Accounts Committee (22 members: 15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha) examines the CAG's audit reports and, by a convention since 1967, is chaired by a member of the opposition. The Estimates Committee (30 members, all from the Lok Sabha), first set up in 1950, suggests economies in spending.

The anti-defection law

The 52nd Amendment (1985) added the Tenth Schedule, under which a member who gives up the party's membership or votes against its whip can be disqualified. The presiding officer decides such cases, and the Supreme Court held in the Kihoto Hollohan case (1992) that the decision is open to judicial review. The 91st Amendment (2003) removed the exception for a "split" by one-third of a party's legislators; only a merger backed by two-thirds of the legislature party is now protected.

Recent milestones

• The new Parliament building was inaugurated on 28 May 2023, and the Houses began sitting there in September 2023. A Sengol, a sceptre linked to the Chola tradition of handing over power, was installed beside the Speaker's chair.
• The 106th Amendment Act, 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) reserves one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha, the State Assemblies and the Delhi Assembly for women. The reservation will take effect after the delimitation that follows the next census, and will last fifteen years.

Revise in one minute

• Article 79: Parliament = President + Rajya Sabha + Lok Sabha. Articles 79–122.
• Lok Sabha: maximum 550, now 543, minimum age 25, five-year term. Rajya Sabha: maximum 250 (12 nominated), now 245, minimum age 30, permanent, members serve six years.
• Speaker: Article 93, resigns to the Deputy Speaker; first Speaker G.V. Mavalankar.
• Sessions at most six months apart (Article 85); quorum one-tenth (Article 100).
• Money bill: Article 110, Lok Sabha only, Rajya Sabha 14 days, Speaker's certificate final.
• Joint sitting: Article 108, presided by the Speaker, held three times (1961, 1978, 2002).
• Budget: Article 112. Anti-defection: 52nd Amendment, Tenth Schedule. Women's reservation: 106th Amendment, 2023.