The Parliament

The Union Legislature in the Indian Constitutional set-up is known as the Indian Parliament. It is modelled after the British Parliament, wherein the Executive is collectively responsible to the Parliament. This is known as the Parliamentary form of government.

According to former President KR Narayanan, “Parliament and legislatures constitute the head and front of the body-politics in India. They are the institutional embodiments of the audacious experiment in democracy by the founding fathers of our republic.”

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The first Parliament was constituted in May 1952, after the first general elections; till then, the Constituent Assembly acted as provisional Parliament.

Composition of the Parliament

The Constitution of India, in Article 79, provides for a Union legislature that consists of the President and the two houses, namely the House of People (Lok Sabha) and the Council of States (Rajya Sabha). While the Lok Sabha is subject to dissolution, the Rajya Sabha is a permanent body.

Even though the President is not a member of the Parliament and does not participate in the proceedings of the House, s/he is an integral part of the Parliament due to the following reasons:

• S/he summons and prorogues the session of Parliament;
• Dissolves the Lok Sabha;
• Addresses both houses at the beginning of the Lok Sabha and the first session of each year;
• Promulgates ordinances when the Parliament is not in session;
• Legislation becomes an act only after the President’s assent.

Lok Sabha

The House of the People or the Lok Sabha (the Hindi name was adopted in 1954) represents the people of India as a whole and consists of members who are directly elected by the people.

• It has a maximum strength of 550 members, with 530 members representing the states and 20 members representing the Union territories.
• The current membership of Lok Sabha is 543.

104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019

Earlier, there was a provision (Article 331) for the nomination of 2 Anglo-Indians in the Lok Sabha by the President if the community is not represented adequately. The Act amended Article 334 and discontinued the provision of the nomination of the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures.

Rajya Sabha

The Council of States or the Rajya Sabha (the Hindi name was adopted in 1954) represents the states and the Union territories, and it is a permanent house in which members are indirectly elected by state legislative assembly members (MLAs).

• The maximum strength of the upper House is 250, out of which 238 members represent the states and the Union territories (with legislature) and 12 members nominated by the President.
• The Nominated members are eminent personalities from different walks of life, such as literature, science, arts and social work.
• The current strength of the House is 245.

Elections to the Lok Sabha

The members of the Lok Sabha are elected through a direct election based on a universal adult franchise and a ‘first past the post’ system. In this section, we’ll look at the various provisions related to the election of Lok Sabha.

Territorial Constituencies (Delimitation)

The states are divided into territorial constituencies for conducting direct elections and electing members from each constituency. The Constitution makes the following provisions in this regard:

1. Each state is allocated a fixed number of seats in a manner that the ratio between the population and seats remains uniform across the states. However, this provision does not apply to states with a population of less than 60 lakhs.
2. Further, the states are divided into constituencies in a manner that each seat represents the same population.

The term ‘population’ here means the population in the preceding census which has been published.

Delimitation

1. After each census, readjustment has to be made both in the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to the states and the division of states into constituencies.
2. The Constitution has empowered the Parliament to determine the manner in which these adjustments have to be carried out and set up an appropriate authority for that. In line with this provision, the Parliament passed delimitation acts in 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.
3. To promote population control measures, the 42^nd Constitutional Amendment Act 1976 froze the allocation of seats to the states and division of states into constituencies by 2000, at the 1971 level. This was extended till 2026 by the 84^th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2001.
4. Further, the 87^th Constitutional Amendment Act 2003 permitted the adjustment of seats within the states as per the census figures of 2001.

Reservation of Seats for the SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha

• To deal with the backwardness and historical injustices towards Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, the Constitutions had provided for the reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha for SCs and STs in proportion to their population in states.
• It is to be noted that this provision is not equivalent to the separate electorate; the candidates are elected by all the general electorate, i.e. voters of that constituency.
• The original Constitution had provided for this reservation to continue for 10 years only; however, it has been extended continuously through several amendments, each shifting it forward by 10 years. Last, it was amended through the 104^th Constitutional Amendment Act that extended the reservations till 2030.
• The 87^th Constitutional Amendment Act has provided for the fixing of reserved seats on the basis of 2001 census

Provisions for Reservation of Seats in the Lok Sabha for Women (106^th Constitutional Amendment Act)

The Parliament in September 2023 passed the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, also known as Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, providing reservation for women in 1/3^rd of the seats in Lok Sabha and the state legislatures.

The reservations would continue for 15 years and can be further extended by the Parliament.

It amends the following Articles of the Constitution:

1. Article 239AA: 1/3^rd of the seats in the assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall be reserved for women. It includes 1/3^rd horizontal reservation in seats for SCs.
2. Insertion of Article 330A: 1/3rd of the seats in Lok Sabha shall be reserved for women. It includes 1/3rd horizontal reservation in seats reserved for SCs and STs.
3. Insertion of Article 332A: 1/3^rd of the seats in state assemblies shall be reserved for women. It includes 1/3^rd horizontal reservation in seats reserved for SCs and STs.
4. Insertion of 334A: The provisions for reservation would come into effect after the delimitation is undertaken on the basis of the first census after the commencement of this Act. The reservation of seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies will cease to have effect after the expiration of 15 years from such commencement.

Note: The strength of women MPs in the current Lok Sabha (17^th Lok Sabha) is 15%, and in the Rajya Sabha the number is 14%.

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