Chapter 2: Civics: The Union Parliament — II
In 1961, a bill about dowry had been travelling between the two Houses of Parliament for well over a year. The Lok Sabha had passed one version. The Rajya Sabha had altered it. The Lok Sabha would not accept all the alterations, and neither House would give way. The framers of the Constitution had foreseen exactly this. A Parliament with two Houses can check itself, but it can also jam. So they built in a release valve. If the two Houses deadlock over an ordinary bill, the President may summon them to sit together and vote as one body. That had never been done before. In May 1961 it was done for the first time. Members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha filled a single chamber. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha took the chair, and not the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, because the Constitution gives the Speaker that seat at a joint sitting. Every member present, from either House, had one vote of equal weight. The Bill was carried. It became the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. Look closely at what that sitting revealed. The two Houses are not equals in every respect. When both vote together, the larger House will usually prevail, and the Lok Sabha is more than twice the size of the Rajya Sabha. Why, then, have a second chamber at all?
Diagram
Fig. 2.0-1 Caption: At a joint sitting the members of both Houses meet in one chamber and vote as a single body. Brief: Draw a single semicircular chamber seen from behind the presiding officer’s chair. Label the chair ‘Speaker of the Lok Sabha’. Show two shaded groups of seated members, the larger group labelled ‘Members of the Lok Sabha’ and the smaller labelled ‘Members of the Rajya Sabha’. Emphasise the difference in the size of the two groups. Do not label any individual member.
2.1 The Rajya Sabha
India’s Parliament has two Houses, and they are built on two different ideas. The Lok Sabha is filled by voters, constituency by constituency, and it speaks for the people of India as a whole.
The second House speaks for something else. India is a union of States, and those States needed a chamber in which they appear as units and not merely as populations. That chamber is the Rajya Sabha, which the Constitution calls the Council of States.
The framers had a second reason as well. A single chamber can pass a law quickly, in the heat of a moment, with no one obliged to look at it twice. A second chamber slows that moment down. It re-examines a bill, suggests changes, and returns it. Some framers thought this a safeguard; others thought it a delay. Both descriptions fit.
2.1.1 Composition
The Constitution fixes a ceiling rather than a fixed number. The Rajya Sabha may have at most 250 members, and they fall into two categories.
Up to 238 are representatives of the States and the Union Territories. The remaining 12 are nominated by the President. In practice the House has been smaller than its ceiling, because seats are allotted only as States and Union Territories are created or reorganised.
2.1.1.1 Elected Members
Seats are not shared equally among the States. An equal share would give a State of seventy lakh people the same voice as a State of twenty crore, and the framers rejected that. Seats are therefore allotted broadly according to population, and the allotment is set out in a schedule to the Constitution.
The pattern this produces is worth looking at directly. Table 2.1 gives the seats of a few States and Union Territories.
Read the table as a picture of weight. Uttar Pradesh alone sends thirty-one members, while Goa sends one, and a handful of large States together can outvote many small ones. The Rajya Sabha is a chamber of States, but it is not a chamber of equal States.
The table cannot tell you everything, and it is important to see what it leaves out. It does not show how those seats are actually distributed among parties, which changes with every biennial election. It does not show whether a State’s members vote together as a State bloc, which they are under no obligation to do. And a table of seats says nothing about how often a member speaks or what use is made of the seat.
2.1.1.2 Nominated Members
The twelve nominated members are chosen by the President from among persons with special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service. Over the years the House has included scientists, writers, artists, jurists and social workers who had never contested an election.
The reasoning behind nomination is that a legislature which only ever contains people good at winning votes may lack people good at other things. A law on medical research or on the arts is better made in a room that contains someone who has done that work.
The arrangement is also open to criticism, and the criticism is worth stating plainly. Nomination is made on the advice of the government of the day, so the choice is a political one. Nothing in the Constitution defines who is distinguished enough, and nothing prevents a nominated member from joining a party after entering the House.
2.1.2 Qualifications For Membership
A person seeking a seat in the Rajya Sabha must satisfy the conditions the Constitution lays down, together with those Parliament has added by law. They are:
- He or she must be a citizen of India.
- He or she must be not less than thirty years of age.
- He or she must be registered as a voter in a parliamentary constituency somewhere in India.
- He or she must possess any other qualification that Parliament prescribes by law, and must make and subscribe an oath or affirmation before taking a seat.
Only the age differs from the Lok Sabha, where twenty-five years is enough. The grounds of disqualification, which the previous chapter set out, apply to both Houses alike.
2.1.3 Election Of Members
The members of the Rajya Sabha are not elected by the people at all. The representatives of a State are elected by the elected members of that State’s Legislative Assembly, which is the elected House of the State legislature. The voters, therefore, choose the electors, and the electors choose the members.
This is an indirect election, and it is deliberately so. If the people elected both Houses directly, the second House would be a copy of the first, with the same claim to speak for the same voters.
The voting method is unusual and needs unpacking. Proportional representation is a method of election designed so that a group of electors wins seats roughly in proportion to its strength, instead of the largest group taking everything. It is applied here through the single transferable vote, under which each elector ranks the candidates in order of preference on one ballot, and a vote that is not needed by one candidate is transferred to the next preference marked on it.
Since 2003 the ballot in these elections is an open one. A member of the Legislative Assembly who belongs to a party must show the marked ballot to that party’s authorised agent before placing it in the box. The change was made to make cross-voting visible; its critics reply that a vote which can be watched is no longer a free vote.
The representatives of the Union Territories are chosen in such manner as Parliament may prescribe by law. For Delhi and Puducherry, which have Legislative Assemblies of their own, that law provides for election by the members of those Assemblies.
Figure and procedure are easier to follow together, so the steps are set out in FC 2.1.
Flowchart
FC 2.1 — How A State’s Members Of The Rajya Sabha Are Elected Caption: The procedure followed whenever seats allotted to a State fall vacant, which happens every second year. Nodes: The Constitution fixes how many seats the State has → the Election Commission announces the election for the seats falling vacant → candidates file nominations, each proposed by members of the State Legislative Assembly → if the number of candidates equals the number of seats, all are declared elected unopposed and no poll is held → otherwise a poll is taken, and each elected member of the Assembly ranks the candidates in order of preference on a single ballot → a member belonging to a party shows the marked ballot to that party’s authorised agent → a candidate who reaches the fixed quota of votes is declared elected → surplus votes and lower preferences are transferred until every seat is filled
2.1.4 Term Of The House
A member of the Rajya Sabha holds the seat for six years. But the House does not go to the polls all at once. One-third of its members retire at the end of every second year, and elections are held to fill their places. A retiring member may stand again, and may be re-elected as often as the electors are willing.
The consequence is important. The Rajya Sabha is a permanent House: it cannot be dissolved, and there is never a moment at which it does not exist. The Lok Sabha, by contrast, is dissolved at the end of its term or earlier, and for a period there is no Lok Sabha at all.
2.1.5 The Presiding Officers
The Vice-President of India is the ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Latin phrase meaning that the office carries the chairmanship automatically, with no separate election to it. He or she presides over the sittings, keeps order, and decides points of procedure.
The Chairman is not a member of the House and so does not vote on any question before it. There is one exception. If the votes on a question are equally divided, the Chairman exercises a casting vote, which is a vote given by the presiding officer only to break a tie.
The House also elects a Deputy Chairman from among its own members. The Deputy Chairman performs all the duties of the Chairman when that office is vacant or the Chairman is absent, and may be removed by a resolution of the House.
The design here is worth noticing. The presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha comes from outside the House, while the Lok Sabha elects its Speaker from among its own members. A chairman who is not a member has no constituency to please inside the chamber, which is meant to make impartiality easier.
2.2 Powers And Functions Of The Union Parliament
The Parliament of India is not only the two Houses. It consists of the President, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, because no bill becomes an Act until the President has assented to it.
Between them these three do far more than make laws. Parliament controls the money the government spends, removes certain high officers, elects others, changes the Constitution itself, and holds the government of the day answerable every week it sits. Figure 2.2-1 sets out the six kinds of power that the rest of this section examines one by one.
Diagram
Fig. 2.2-1 Caption: The powers of the Union Parliament fall into six groups, all exercised by the same body. Brief: Draw a central labelled box reading ‘Union Parliament’ with six labelled arms radiating from it: ‘Legislative’, ‘Financial’, ‘Judicial’, ‘Electoral’, ‘Amendment of the Constitution’ and ‘Control over the Executive’. Give each arm one keyword beneath it: ‘three Lists’, ‘budget and taxes’, ‘removal from office’, ‘President and presiding officers’, ‘special majority’, ‘questions and motions’. Keep all six arms the same size.
The two Houses are not rivals in this work. They are co-partners, and in most of what follows they have equal standing. The exceptions, where one House can act and the other cannot, are set out in section 2.3.
2.2.1 Legislative Powers
Law-making is the first and largest of Parliament’s functions. Every bill other than a money bill may begin in either House, and no bill becomes law until both Houses have passed it in identical terms.
If the two Houses cannot agree on an ordinary bill, the President may summon them to a joint sitting, where the matter is decided by a majority of the members of both Houses present and voting.
2.2.1.1 The Three Lists And Residuary Powers
India is a federal union, so law-making had to be divided between the Union and the States. The Constitution does this through three lists of subjects.
- The Union List holds subjects on which only Parliament may legislate, such as defence, foreign affairs, currency, banking, railways, atomic energy and communications.
- The State List holds subjects on which a State legislature ordinarily legislates, such as agriculture, animal husbandry, public health, police and local government.
- The Concurrent List holds subjects on which both may legislate, such as education, forests, criminal law, marriage, adoption, succession and trade unions.
On a Concurrent List subject, two laws may cover the same ground. The Constitution settles the clash in advance: where a State law is repugnant to a Union law on that subject, the Union law prevails and the State law is void to the extent of the conflict.
No list can be complete, because new subjects appear that nobody in 1950 could name. Residuary powers are the powers to make law on matters that appear in none of the three lists, and the Constitution gives them to Parliament. Cyberspace and space technology were legislated for under this heading long after the lists were drawn.
2.2.1.2 Laws On State Subjects
The State List is not sealed off. In defined circumstances Parliament may legislate on a subject that ordinarily belongs to a State, and each of these routes exists for a reason.
- If the Rajya Sabha resolves, by a two-thirds majority of members present and voting, that a State List subject has become a matter of national interest, Parliament may legislate on it. Such a resolution has effect for a limited period and must be renewed.
- While a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation, Parliament may make laws for the whole or any part of India on State subjects.
- If the legislatures of two or more States pass resolutions asking Parliament to legislate on a State subject, it may do so, and the Act then applies only to the States that asked. Another State may adopt it later.
- Where the constitutional machinery in a State has broken down and the State is under President’s Rule, Parliament exercises the powers of that State’s legislature.
Notice which House is named in the first of these routes. It is the Rajya Sabha, the chamber of the States, that must certify that a State subject has become a national one. The framers put that decision in the House where the States are represented, and not in the House of the people.
2.2.1.3 Ordinances
Parliament does not sit all year. If an urgent matter arises while a House is not in session, waiting for the next session may cost too much time. An ordinance is a law made by the President when Parliament is not in session, having the same force and effect as an Act.
The power is an emergency device, and it is fenced. Every ordinance must be laid before both Houses when they reassemble, and it ceases to operate six weeks after the reassembly unless both Houses approve it before then. It may also be withdrawn earlier by the President.
Parliament And The Map Of India
Parliament may also alter the boundaries of the States themselves. By ordinary law it can form a new State, merge territories, change a State’s area, and change its name. The legislature of the State concerned is asked for its views, but those views do not bind Parliament.
2.2.2 Financial Powers
The oldest power of any elected legislature is control of the purse. The rule is stated simply: no tax may be levied or collected except by authority of law, and no money may be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India except under an appropriation made by law. The government may want to spend; only Parliament can permit it.
A money bill is a bill dealing only with matters such as the imposition of taxes, borrowing by the government, and the withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund. It can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.
Parliament’s financial work runs through the year in a fixed cycle:
- It passes the Union Budget, the annual statement of the government’s estimated receipts and expenditure for a financial year. The financial year begins on 1 April. The Railway Budget, presented separately for decades, was merged into the Union Budget from 2017–18.
- It sanctions supplementary grants when the amount already authorised for the year proves insufficient.
- It grants a vote on account, an advance sanction that lets the government draw money from the Consolidated Fund for a short period when the budget has not been passed before the financial year begins.
- It determines the salaries and allowances of Members of Parliament and of Ministers.
- It examines how the money was actually spent, through committees, of which the Committee on Public Accounts is the best known. That committee scrutinises the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, the constitutional officer who audits government accounts.
The last of these matters more than students usually expect. Voting money is a promise about the future; examining the audit is a check on the past. A legislature that only did the first would never learn whether its permission had been honoured.
The steps by which the budget is actually passed are set out in FC 2.2.
Flowchart
FC 2.2 — How The Union Budget Is Passed Caption: The annual sequence by which Parliament authorises the government’s receipts and expenditure. Nodes: The Budget is presented in the Lok Sabha → both Houses hold a general discussion on it → the demands for grants are discussed and voted in the Lok Sabha alone, where cut motions may be moved → if the process cannot be completed before 1 April, a vote on account is passed first to carry the government on → the Appropriation Bill is passed, authorising withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund → the Finance Bill is passed, authorising the taxes → each goes to the Rajya Sabha, which must return it within fourteen days with or without recommendations → the Lok Sabha may accept or reject those recommendations → the President gives assent and the grants become law
2.2.3 Judicial Powers
Parliament is not a court, and it does not try ordinary offences. It does, however, hold the power to remove certain constitutional officers, and that power is judicial in form because charges are framed, evidence is examined and a verdict is reached.
- The President may be removed by impeachment for violation of the Constitution. Either House may prefer the charge; if it passes that resolution by not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House, the other House investigates the charge, and the President has the right to be heard. If the investigating House also passes the resolution by the same majority, the President is removed from office.
- A Judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court may be removed on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity, by an address of both Houses passed in the same session by a majority of the total membership of each House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.
- The Chief Election Commissioner and the Comptroller and Auditor-General are removable in the same manner and on the same grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court.
- Each House may punish a person, member or not, for obstructing its work or for contempt of the House.
Look at the majorities in the first two items. They are deliberately hard to reach, so that no ordinary governing majority can remove a President or a Judge, and no such removal can happen quietly.
2.2.4 Electoral Functions
Parliament also elects and helps to elect. An electoral college is the body of electors who choose a person for an office, rather than the whole population choosing directly.
- The President is elected by an electoral college made up of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament together with the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States, including Delhi and Puducherry. Nominated members do not take part.
- The Vice-President is elected by the members of both Houses of Parliament, and here the nominated members of the Rajya Sabha do vote.
- The Lok Sabha elects its Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its own members, and the Rajya Sabha elects its Deputy Chairman.
The difference between the first two is a small piece of design worth pausing on. The President is head of a federal union, so the States are given a share in choosing that office. The Vice-President presides over one House of Parliament, so only Parliament chooses.
2.2.5 Amendment Of The Constitution
A constitution that could never be changed would break under the weight of a changing country. One that could be changed like any other law would give no security at all. The Constitution therefore makes amendment possible but difficult.
An amendment bill may be introduced in either House. It must be passed in each House separately by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.
Some amendments need more. Where the change touches the federal structure, such as the election of the President, the division of powers between the Union and the States, or the position of the High Courts, it must also be ratified by the legislatures of not less than half the States before it goes to the President for assent.
Two features of this process are easy to miss. There is no joint sitting for a constitutional amendment bill, so each House must pass it on its own, and the Rajya Sabha therefore cannot be overruled here. And the Supreme Court has held that the amending power, wide as it is, cannot be used to destroy the basic structure of the Constitution.
2.2.6 Control Over The Executive
In a parliamentary system the executive is not separately elected. The Council of Ministers is drawn from Parliament and stays in office only while it holds the confidence of the Lok Sabha. This is the principle of collective responsibility: the Ministers stand or fall together before the House.
The control is exercised through instruments the House uses almost daily.
- Interpellation means the questioning of ministers by members. The Question Hour, the first hour of a sitting, is set aside for it, and Calling Attention Notices and Half-an-Hour Discussions serve the same end.
- Motions of censure and adjournment motions allow the House to record disapproval of a policy or of a minister.
- Cut motions during the budget session let members challenge a specific demand for money.
- A motion of no-confidence, if carried in the Lok Sabha, obliges the Prime Minister and the entire Council of Ministers to resign.
The everyday instruments matter more than the dramatic one. A no-confidence motion succeeds rarely; a question that a minister must answer on the floor, on the record, works every week the House sits.
2.3 Exclusive Powers Of The Two Houses
In most of its work Parliament acts as one body with two chambers. On a few matters, however, the Constitution deliberately gives one House a power the other does not have. These are the exclusive powers, and each of them follows from how the House concerned is filled.
The reasoning is consistent. The Lok Sabha is elected directly by the people and can be dissolved, so it is given the last word on money and on the life of the government. The Rajya Sabha represents the States and never dies, so it is given the decisions that concern the States and the decisions that must be available even when the other House does not exist.
2.3.1 Exclusive Powers Of The Lok Sabha
Two of these powers are of the first importance, and a third follows from arithmetic.
- A motion of no-confidence can be moved and passed only in the Lok Sabha. The Council of Ministers is responsible to that House alone, so the Rajya Sabha may criticise a government at length but cannot remove it. An adjournment motion, which sets aside the day’s business to discuss an urgent matter, is likewise available only in the Lok Sabha.
- A money bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, and only with the President’s recommendation. Once passed there it goes to the Rajya Sabha, which may keep it for a maximum of fourteen days and may only send back recommendations. The Lok Sabha may accept or reject those recommendations as it chooses. If the bill is not returned within fourteen days, it is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form the Lok Sabha sent it.
- Where the two Houses deadlock over an ordinary bill and a joint sitting is called, the Lok Sabha will normally carry the day. Its membership is more than double that of the Rajya Sabha, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides.
The second of these is the sharpest. A money bill cannot deadlock, because the Rajya Sabha has no power to reject it and no power to hold it. There is therefore no disagreement for a joint sitting to resolve.
Whether a bill is a money bill is not left to argument. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha certifies it, and that certificate is final.
2.3.2 Exclusive Powers Of The Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha holds three powers the Lok Sabha cannot exercise, and each of them rests on its character as the House of the States.
- It alone may resolve that a subject in the State List has become a matter of national interest, thereby empowering Parliament to legislate on it. The Lok Sabha has no such authority.
- It alone may resolve that the creation of a new All-India Service is necessary in the national interest, after which Parliament may create the service. An All-India Service is one whose officers serve both the Union and the States, so the States must be the ones to ask for another.
- A resolution for the removal of the Vice-President can be moved only in the Rajya Sabha, though it must then be agreed to by the Lok Sabha.
There is also the plain fact of continuity. When the Lok Sabha is dissolved, the Rajya Sabha continues to sit, and business that requires a House of Parliament can still be transacted.
That continuity has a limit which is often overstated. The Rajya Sabha does not become Parliament in the absence of the Lok Sabha. It cannot pass a law by itself, because a bill still needs the assent of both Houses, and it cannot pass a money bill at all.
2.3.3 Where The Two Houses Stand Equal
It would be wrong to leave the impression that the Rajya Sabha is a weak House. On the greater part of Parliament’s work the two Houses are exactly equal, and on some of it the Rajya Sabha cannot be bypassed at all.
An ordinary bill must be passed by both. A constitutional amendment must be passed by each House separately by the required special majority, and there is no joint sitting for such a bill, so the Rajya Sabha’s agreement is indispensable. The impeachment of the President, the removal of a Judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court, and the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Comptroller and Auditor-General all require both Houses. Every ordinance, every Proclamation of Emergency and every proclamation of the failure of constitutional machinery in a State must be laid before both. Members of both Houses question ministers and sit on parliamentary committees.
Having stated the position in prose, we can now set the two Houses side by side. Table 2.2 compares them on the points that matter.
Read the table downwards rather than across. Every difference in the second and third columns traces back to the first two rows, because how a House is filled decides what it may safely be trusted with. A chamber the voters can dismiss is given the money and the government. A chamber the voters cannot dismiss is given the States and the continuity.
The table cannot settle the argument it raises. It shows the powers on paper, but not whether the second chamber has in fact improved the laws that passed through it, which would need a study of particular bills and of what changed in them.
2.4 Summary
- India’s Parliament has two Houses built on two different ideas. The Lok Sabha speaks for the people, while the Rajya Sabha, which the Constitution calls the Council of States, gives the States a chamber of their own and gives every ordinary bill a second reading.
- The Rajya Sabha may have at most 250 members. Up to 238 represent the States and Union Territories, and 12 are nominated by the President from persons with special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service.
- Seats are allotted broadly according to population, so the States are represented unequally. Uttar Pradesh holds thirty-one seats while Goa holds one, and a few large States together can outweigh many small ones.
- A member must be a citizen of India, not less than thirty years of age, and registered as a voter in a parliamentary constituency in India. Only the age requirement differs from the Lok Sabha.
- Members are elected indirectly, by the elected members of each State’s Legislative Assembly, using proportional representation through the single transferable vote. The ballot is an open one, which makes cross-voting visible but also makes the vote observable.
- The Rajya Sabha is a permanent House. A member serves six years, one-third of the members retire every second year, and the House can never be dissolved.
- The Vice-President is its ex officio Chairman. Not being a member, the Chairman votes only to break a tie, and the House elects a Deputy Chairman from among its own members.
- Parliament consists of the President and the two Houses, and its powers fall into six groups: legislative, financial, judicial, electoral, amendment of the Constitution, and control over the executive.
- Law-making is divided by three lists. Parliament alone legislates on the Union List, both levels on the Concurrent List where a Union law prevails in a conflict, and the residuary powers over unlisted subjects belong to Parliament.
- Parliament may legislate on a State subject in defined circumstances:
- when the Rajya Sabha resolves by a two-thirds majority of members present and voting that the subject has become one of national interest;
- while a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation;
- when two or more State legislatures request it, the Act then applying only to the consenting States;
- when a State is under President’s Rule.
- An ordinance made by the President when Parliament is not in session has the force of an Act, but must be laid before both Houses and lapses six weeks after their reassembly unless approved.
- No tax may be levied and no money drawn from the Consolidated Fund without the authority of law. Parliament passes the Budget, sanctions supplementary grants, may grant a vote on account, and examines actual spending through committees that study the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General.
- Parliament’s judicial powers are powers of removal — of the President by impeachment, and of Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, the Chief Election Commissioner and the Comptroller and Auditor-General. The majorities required are deliberately hard to reach.
- Its electoral functions include the election of the President by an electoral college of elected members of both Houses and of the State Legislative Assemblies, and the election of the Vice-President by the members of both Houses.
- A constitutional amendment must pass each House separately by a majority of its total membership and by two-thirds of members present and voting, with ratification by half the State legislatures for changes touching the federal structure. There is no joint sitting for such a bill.
- The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. Parliament controls the executive through the Question Hour, calling attention notices, censure and adjournment motions, cut motions, and the motion of no-confidence.
- The exclusive powers of each House follow from how it is filled:
- only the Lok Sabha may pass a no-confidence motion and only there may a money bill begin, the Rajya Sabha having fourteen days in which to recommend;
- only the Rajya Sabha may declare a State subject to be of national interest, ask for a new All-India Service, or move the removal of the Vice-President.
- On most matters the two Houses are equal. Ordinary bills, constitutional amendments, impeachments, removals, ordinances and proclamations all require both, and the Rajya Sabha cannot be bypassed on an amendment.
The Idea In One Place
The Union Parliament exists to make law, to control public money, and to keep the government answerable between elections. Its two Houses answer two different questions: who speaks for the people, and who speaks for the States.
Every power in this chapter was distributed on that basis. The House the voters can dismiss was trusted with the money and with the life of the government; the House the voters cannot dismiss was trusted with the States and with continuity.
The question the chapter leaves open is whether the second chamber does the work it was designed for. It was meant to revise laws with care and to defend the States, but its members are chosen by party legislators and often vote as parties rather than as States.
2.5 Key Terms
- Casting vote: a vote given by the presiding officer of a House only to break a tie, when the votes on a question are equally divided.
- Collective responsibility: the principle that the Ministers stand or fall together before the Lok Sabha, and must resign as one body if that House withdraws its confidence.
- Electoral college: the body of electors who choose a person for an office, in place of the whole population choosing directly.
- Interpellation: the questioning of ministers by members of a House about the policies and work of their departments.
- Money bill: a bill dealing only with matters such as taxation, government borrowing, and the withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund of India.
- Ordinance: a law made by the President when Parliament is not in session, having the same force as an Act until Parliament decides its fate.
- Proportional representation: a method of election designed so that a group of electors wins seats roughly in proportion to its strength, instead of the largest group taking everything.
- Residuary powers: the powers to make law on subjects that appear in none of the three lists, which the Constitution gives to Parliament.
- Single transferable vote: a method of voting in which each elector ranks the candidates in order of preference on one ballot, and a vote not needed by one candidate passes to the next preference marked on it.
- Vote on account: an advance sanction allowing the government to draw money from the Consolidated Fund for a short period when the Budget has not been passed before the financial year begins.
2.6 Points to Ponder
The Rajya Sabha was designed to speak for the States, yet its members are chosen by legislators who belong to national parties and usually vote as their party decides. In what sense, then, is it still a House of the States?
Twelve members enter the Upper House without facing a voter. If expert knowledge is the reason for those seats, why does the Constitution not say what counts as expertise, and who should decide it?
Seats are allotted according to population, so a large State sends thirty-one members and a small one sends a single member. Would a chamber of States work better if every State sent an equal number, and what would be lost if it did?
An ordinance can carry the force of law for weeks before Parliament examines it. What does that tell you about who really makes law when the Houses are not sitting?
A no-confidence motion is moved rarely and succeeds even more rarely. Does that make it a weak instrument of control, or is a power that is seldom used still doing its work?
Whether a bill is a money bill decides how much say the Rajya Sabha will have, and that question is settled by an officer of the other House. Is there a better way to decide it?
2.7 Objective Questions
- The seats of the Rajya Sabha are allotted to the States mainly on the basis of
- the area of the State
- the population of the State
- the revenue collected by the State
- the number of districts in the State [1 mark]
- Complete the following analogy. Speaker : joint sitting of the two Houses :: Chairman of the Rajya Sabha : ….?….
- a sitting of the Lok Sabha
- an equally divided vote in the Rajya Sabha
- the introduction of a money bill
- a meeting of the Council of Ministers [1 mark]
- An ordinance promulgated while Parliament was not in session ceases to operate
- as soon as either House reassembles
- six weeks after the reassembly of Parliament, unless approved by both Houses
- fourteen days after it is laid before the Rajya Sabha
- only when the President withdraws it [1 mark]
- Which of the following statements about the two Houses are correct? P: A resolution declaring a State List subject to be of national interest may be moved only in the Rajya Sabha. Q: A no-confidence motion may be passed in either House. R: A constitutional amendment bill may be decided at a joint sitting of the two Houses. S: A money bill may be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.
- P and Q
- P and S
- Q and R
- R and S [1 mark]
- Assertion (A): The Rajya Sabha is described as a permanent House. Reason (R): One-third of its members retire at the end of every second year and their seats are filled by fresh elections.
- Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
- Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
- A is true, but R is false.
- A is false, but R is true. [1 mark]
- Match the items in Column I with those in Column II.
| Column I | Column II |
|---|---|
| a. Residuary powers | i. The questioning of ministers on the floor of a House |
| b. Vote on account | ii. The method by which members of the Rajya Sabha are elected |
| c. Interpellation | iii. Law-making on subjects found in none of the three lists |
| d. Single transferable vote | iv. An advance sanction to spend before the Budget is passed |
[1 mark]
- Fill in the blanks.
- The minimum age for membership of the Rajya Sabha is ………… years.
- The Rajya Sabha must return a money bill to the Lok Sabha within ………… days. [1 mark]
2.8 Check Your Concepts
State the maximum strength of the Rajya Sabha, and name the two categories into which its members fall. [2 marks]
Who presides over the sittings of the Rajya Sabha? State one occasion on which that officer may vote. [2 marks]
Explain briefly what is meant by the residuary powers of Parliament, and give one example of a subject legislated upon under them. [3 marks]
Differentiate between the manner in which members of the Lok Sabha and members of the Rajya Sabha are elected. [3 marks]
Explain, with an example, any two circumstances in which Parliament may make a law on a subject in the State List. [4 marks]
Describe the financial powers of the Union Parliament, and explain why the Lok Sabha is stronger than the Rajya Sabha in financial matters. [5 marks]
‘The two Houses of Parliament are not equal, but neither is the Rajya Sabha a weak House.’ Evaluate this claim, referring to the exclusive powers of each House and to the matters on which they stand equal. [6 marks]
2.9 Show Your Skills
- A bill is introduced in the Lok Sabha and passed there. The Speaker has certified it as a money bill. It is sent to the Rajya Sabha, which holds it for twenty days without returning it. The government then announces that the bill stands passed by Parliament.
- State what the Constitution provides about the time within which the Rajya Sabha must return a money bill, and say whether the government’s announcement is correct. [2 marks]
- Explain why a joint sitting of the two Houses cannot be summoned in this situation. [2 marks]
- State one thing this episode cannot tell you about the quality of the bill itself. [1 mark]
- Study the following description of a picture. Members are seated in a single semicircular chamber. One group of members is clearly much larger than the other. The officer in the chair is the Speaker, and every member present, from either group, is casting one vote of equal weight.
- Identify the kind of sitting shown, and state who has the power to summon it. [2 marks]
- Explain why the smaller group is usually outvoted at such a sitting. [2 marks]
- Name one category of bill that can never be brought to such a sitting, and give the reason. [2 marks]
- A social worker who has never contested an election takes a seat in the Rajya Sabha. In the same week, a resolution is moved in that House stating that a subject in the State List has become a matter of national interest, and it is carried by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting.
- Explain how a person who has not contested an election can become a member of the Rajya Sabha, and state the fields from which such members are drawn. [3 marks]
- State what Parliament may now do as a result of the resolution, and say why this power was given to the Rajya Sabha rather than to the Lok Sabha. [3 marks]