Parliament of India

The Parliament has two Houses Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and the President is an integral part of the Parliament. India has a parliamentary form of government in which the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers are collectively responsible to the lower House of the Parliament.

It is the people who elect their representatives to be members of the Parliament and these representatives legislate and control the executive on behalf of the people.

Composition of the Parliament

The Parliament has two Houses Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha is upper House and represents the States of India while the Lok Sabha is lower House.

Rajya Sabha

It is a permanent body of parliament, cannot be dissolved. Membership of Rajya Sabha cannot exceed 250.

President nominates 12 members based on their excellence in literature, science, art and social service and the rest are elected. Rajya Sabha is the body representing States in Indian Union.

Elected members of the State’s legislative assemblies elect the members of the Rajya Sabha based on proportional representation through the single transferable vote system. The bigger State gets bigger representation, and the smaller ones have lesser representation.

Tenure

Safe tenure of six years, one third of its members retire after every two years, can be reelected for next term.

Officials of Rajya Sabha

The Vice-President of India is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, in his absence Deputy Chairman the person elected by its members amongst themselves.

The Vice-President is an ex-officio Chairman and not a member of Rajya Sabha. She or he is normally not entitled to vote and can vote only in case of a tie.

Lok Sabha

It is elected directly by the people based on universal adult franchise. The maximum permissible membership of Lok Sabha is 550 out of which 530 are directly elected from the States while 20 members are elected from the Union Territories.

President may nominate two members from the Anglo-Indian community. Number of seats have been reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha.

Tenure

Term is for five years, but the President on the advice of Council of Ministers may dissolve it before the expiry of five years.

Officials of the Lok Sabha

Presiding officer of Lok Sabha is known as Speaker. Speaker & Deputy Speaker can be removed from office by a resolution of Lok Sabha passed by a majority of all the then members of the House.

Functions of Parliament

Parliament is a law-making body. There are three lists - Union List, State List and Concurrent List. Parliament can make laws on the subjects of Union List, some of Concurrent List & certain circumstances on the State List also.