Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
The President of India, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are collectively known as the Indian Parliament, which is the chief legislative authority in India. The President of India is the head of the Parliament.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are the two houses of Parliament, where Lok Sabha is the lower house of the Parliament and Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament. These two houses of Parliament are having distinct powers and functions. Though this subject is basic one but still many of Aspirants have little or no knowledge about this topic. So, Lets Decode this in D2G way.
Functions of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
- One of the primary functions of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is to debate and discuss over crucial Bills and approve the proposed laws before recommending them to the President for his consent.
- Both the Houses legislate over Union subjects such as Banking, Communications, Defence, and Foreign Affairs.
- The convergence between the two can also be seen when it comes to initiating any Bill for Constitutional Amendment, exercising control over the administration of the country, and passing resolutions on issues of national importance, which are put forward to draw the attention of the members.
LOK SABHA
- The House of People generally known as Lok Sabha is the lower chamber of Parliament.
- It comprises of 552 members in which 530 members representing States, 20 representing Union Territories and 2 representing the Anglo – Indian Community.
- The representatives of the States and Union Territories are chosen by the people who qualify the age of 18 years or above through direct elections.
- The Hon’ble President of India appoints 2 members of the Anglo Indian Community.
- The allocation of seats in the States is based on the proportion of their population.
- A number of seats are reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.
- The Lok Sabha operates for 5 years unless it is dissolved earlier.
- However, the Parliament can extend such period at the time of any emergency.
The first Lok Sabha was constituted in the year 1952 subsequent to the first General Election in the year 1951-1952.
Qualifications for becoming a member of Lok Sabha and vacation of seats
Article 84 (Part V.—The Union) of Indian Constitution sets qualifications for being a member of Lok Sabha, which are as follows:-
- He / She should be a citizen of India, and must subscribe before the Election Commission of India an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule of Indian Constitution.
- He / She, in the case of a seat in the House of the People, should not be less than twenty-five years of age.
- He / She possesses such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.
- He / She should not be proclaimed criminal i.e. they should not be a convict, a confirmed debtor or otherwise disqualified by law; and
- He / She should have his/her name in the electoral rolls in any part of the country.
However, a member can be disqualified of being a member of Parliament:-
- If he / she holds office of profit i.e., any personal business;
- If he / she is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court
- If he / she is an undischarged insolvent (in debts);
- If he / she is not a citizen of India, or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State, or is under any acknowledgment of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State;
- If he / she is violating party discipline (as per Tenth schedule of the constitution); disqualified under Representation of People Act.
System of elections in Lok Sabha (in Layman Language)
- When you vote in the general elections of our country (held every 5 years) you elect members to the Lok Sabha from a particular constituency.
- Lok Sabha has 545 seats,out of which 543 can be filled and the rest 2 are nominated by the president, where you need 272+ in order to get a simple majority in order to form the government.
- We follow a British style system call “First past the post”. In simple Language, if you cross a middle benchmark, you are eligible for forming the government.
- To become an opposition party you need 10%of the seats. The main role of the opposition is to question the policies and workings of the government and hold them accountable to the public.
RAJYA SABHA
Rajya Sabha Logo
- The Council of States commonly known as Rajya Sabha is the upper chamber of Parliament.
- It comprises of 250 Members in which 238 members representing States and Union Territories, while the rest of 12 members are appointed by the Hon’ble President of India.
- The members of Rajya Sabha are chosen through indirect method by the elected members of the legislature of States and Union Territories.
- The twelve members who are nominated by the President are the ones who gave their contribution in the specific fields like sports, cinema etc.
- The allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha is provided in the Fourth Schedule according to which the seat allocation is based on the proportion of the population.
- The Rajya Sabha is a permanent assembly which is not a subject of dissolution, however, 33.33% of its members retires biennially i.e. after every second year which are replaced by the new members.
- The tenure of membership of a member is six years.
Qualifications for becoming a member of Rajya Sabha and vacation of seats
Article 84 of the Constitution lays down the qualifications for membership of Parliament. A member of the Rajya Sabha must:
- Be a citizen of India;
- Make and subscribe before some person authorized in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath;
- Be at least 30 years old;
- Possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.
- Be elected by the Legislative Assembly of States and Union territories by means of Single transferable vote through Proportional representation.
In addition, twelve members are nominated by the President of India having special knowledge in various areas like Arts, Science etc. However they are not entitled to vote in Presidential elections as per Article 55 of the Indian Constitution.
System of elections in Rajya Sabha (in Layman Language – read it meticulously)
- Elections to Rajya sabha are conducted every 2 years. The quota for each state is fixed as per Schedule 4 of the constitution. Elections to 1/3 rd of these seats occur every 2 years.
- Suppose the election is for 10 seats and for simplicity let us assume there are only 2 parties. Of 100 seats in Legislative Assembly suppose Party X has 80 seats and Party Y has 20 seats. Both party fields 10 candidates each i.e. in total 20 candidates are fielded!To win a candidate must acquire following number of votes :
Quotient of ( Number of MLAs/(No. of seats contested + 1)) + 1.
For our case, a candidate requires :
(100/(10+1)) + 1 = 10 votes to win.
Key Differences, At last
1) Alternative names:
Lok Sabha is known as “House of people” and
Rajya Sabha is known as “the council of states”.
2) Election:
Lok Sabha is elected by the people and nominated by the president and
Rajya Sabha is also nominated by the President but elected by the state assemblies.
3) Composition:
Lok Sabha-Maximum strength of the house is 552 according to hte constitution.In this 552, 530 members can represent State, 20 represent Union Territories,2 for Anglo-Indian communities.and (Paresh,please have a note that the numbers mentioned here is the maximum limit) and
Rajya Sabha-Maximum is 250 members.From this 238 is elected by state and union territories and remaining is elected by the President from the field of art,literature and social service.
4) Their Qualifications
5) Terms of Office:
Lok Sabha-5 years is the term of office and it can be dissolved.
Rajya Sabha-It is a permanent house and it can’t be dissolved.
Conclusion
The only limitation with the Lok Sabha is that it is a temporary body, which can be operated for 5 years from the date, it came into force. Although both the bodies constitute the Bicameral-Parliament of India, where the Higher Assembly is the Rajya Sabha and the Lower Assembly is the Lok Sabha.
Joint sittings of both the houses are held when there is a dispute regarding any legislation which is uncommon, however the number of members of Rajya Sabha are half the members of the Lok Sabha. So the power of Lok Sabha is also twice the power of the Rajya Sabha.
References
IndiaStudyChannel, Quora, KeyDifferences, Elections.in, Wikipedia
