Parliament, which is a platform to do a discussion on issues having social and civic importance in any popular democracy, is

a cornerstone of democratic values in any representative democracy.

Parliament may be perceived as a political institution to ensure the realization of what Mahatma Gandhi once envisaged
that, Democracy essentially is the art and science of mobilizing and utilizing the entire physical, economic and immaterial
& metaphysical resources for the common good of all the people.

Though the origin of the concept of Parliament traces to European nations since medieval ages, it has been an
indispensable part of the Indian democratic structure since the inception of democracy in India.

The stalwarts of Indian freedom struggle, legal experts and other members of the Constituent Assembly, arrived at a
conclusion of endorsing a parliamentary system of government after an extensive and in-depth study of the Constitution of
other nation-states.

After the first general election in the year 1952, both the houses of parliament came into existence.

It must be noted that after the Constitution was adopted and till general elections, i.e between 1950 to 1952, the
Constituent Assembly itself functioned as the provisional legislative body.

Composition of Parliament
The Parliament in India comprises the President of India, the Upper House i.e. Rajya Sabha and the Lower House i.e. Lok
Sabha.

Hindi names of both the houses, i.e. Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha had been adopted by the Upper House and the Lower
House respectively.

The Constitution describes the structure of parliament in Article 79. It states that the Parliament comprises of the President
and the two houses i.e. the Lower House or House of People and Upper house or Council of States.

To understand the functions served by the President, we can say that the post of president is somewhat equivalent to the
role and functions of the Queen or Crown in the United Kingdom.

Even though the President is a part of the legislature, he doesn’t sit in parliament.

However, a bill passed by houses can’t be made law without the assent of the President.

Now, let’s discuss the Upper house or Rajya Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha is the Upper House of the Indian Parliament.
This house is permanent in nature as it can never be dissolved. This is because every member elected to the Rajya Sabha
serves for a term of 6 years and one-third of members do retire biennially, while the other members continue their tenure.
It’s like an election in different batches.

Retired members are subject to re-election.

This house consists of 250 members out of which, 238 members are elected by means of a single transferable vote. 12
members are nominated by the President on the advice of the council of ministers.

The method of election of these members is listed in Article 80(1) of the Indian Constitution.

It says that the members would be elected by the elected members of respective state assemblies in accordance with
proportionate representation of every state.

This provision thus reflects the federal nature of the Council of States, where every state is represented proportionally.

However, the number of members representing each state varies from 1 to as large as 31 (for Uttar Pradesh).

Article 84 of the Indian Constitution provides for the qualification to become a member of Rajya Sabha, i.e. one must have
the nationality of India, doesn’t holds any office of profit and must have completed 30 years of age. Article 102 of the
Indian Constitution provides for conditions on which one can be disqualified from either of the houses. It says that one must
be disqualified as a member of the house if,

 he/she holds any office of profit;

 he/she is of unsound mind;

 he/she is discharged insolvent;

 he/she is not a citizen of India and has voluntarily accepted the nationality of other nations;

 he/she is disqualified under any law made by the Parliament.

Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of

Rajya Sabha
In Rajya Sabha, the Vice-President of India presides of its sessions and is ex-officio chairperson of the house.

However, to take care of its day-to-day affairs, and to preside over the sessions in the absence of the Chairperson, i.e. the
Vice-President, a member of the house itself is chosen internally by the Rajya Sabha as Deputy Chairperson of the house.

Position in other Countries

It’ll be an interesting task to look into other democratic systems if something like Rajya Sabha or Upper House exists there
too.

Most of the nation-states in the European Union have a council of states. And almost all of them functions as a consultative
or advisory body to the president or the government.

For example, the Belgian Council of States is a Judicial and advisory body, which assists legal advisory in matters of draft
bills to the executive.

While in China, the Chinese State Council happens to be the highest administrative body of the country.

In Portugal, the Portuguese State Council serves as an advisory body of the President of the state.

In the United States, there is no such body resembling the functions that Rajya Sabha serves. However, it has a bicameral
legislature and is comprised of House of Representatives and the Senate. Interestingly, the number of senators for each
administrative unit is fixed, i.e. 2.
Let’s discuss the utility of Rajya Sabha and the need for the second house.

The utility of the Rajya Sabha

Regarding utility and need of a second chamber in the parliament, an extensive debate took place in the constituent
assembly while framing of the constitution.

Ultimately, it was agreed to adopt a bicameral system of legislature and thus the Rajya Sabha was formed as the second
chamber with a different method of election and different composition altogether.

The utility of the Rajya Sabha can be understood by this hypothetical situation. Suppose, after general elections, a single
political party comes to a thumping majority in the lower house.

Now, having this majority, they can pass any bills or piece of legislation even if the same is not fruitful to the people and
democracy unless there is a system of check.

So, this second house serves as a safety valve and a system of check regarding all the functions of the lower house.

The Lok Sabha

The provisions of Article 331 of the Indian Constitution provides for the existence of the house of the people and shall
consist of a maximum of 530 chosen members from different states, not more than 20 members to be chosen from the
Union Territories. If President feels that there is a lack of representation of the Anglo-Indian Community in parliament he
may nominate two members of the Anglo-Indian Community.

Some seats are also reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled tribes communities especially laid aside for them all
over the country.

The representation is allocated to the states and the Union Territories according to the Representation of the people
Act passed by the Parliament of India in 1951.

The Lok Sabha, unless dissolved midway, continues its tenure for 5 years from the day of its first meeting.

Territorial Constituencies
As the members of the Lok Sabha are elected directly, it needs to have a proper division of the country into smaller units.

And for this purpose, India is divided into small territorial constituencies.

These constituencies are sorted out in such a way so that each Indian state has an adequate share of members in the
house and is proportional to its population.

To keep this division democratic, the constituencies are carved out in such a way so that the ratio of the number of
representatives and the population of that particular constituency should remain the same across all the constituencies.

Tenure of Lok Sabha

The members elected by Universal Adult Suffrage serve their offices for a tenure of five years.

However, if devoid of a popular majority, the government can fall and the house can dissolve midway anytime before the
completion of five years.

Qualification for Membership of Parliament

Qualifications necessary for becoming a member of parliament is provided in Article 84 of the Indian Constitution.
Following are the qualifications:

 he/she should be a citizen of India.

 In the case of Upper House,i.e. Rajya Sabha, he/she should have completed at least 30 years of age and for Lower
House,i.e. Lok Sabha, he/she should have completed 25 years of age.

 he/she need to comply with other such qualifications as prescribed in any law by the Indian Parliament.
Now. let us take a look into grounds on which one can be disqualified as a Member of Parliament.

Disqualification
Now, Article 102 of the Indian Constitution lays the grounds on which a legislator can be disqualified as a member of the
Parliament.

Those grounds are:

 If he/she holds any office of profit under the Government of India or any of the states;

 If he/she is declared of unsound mind by a Court;

 If he/she is an undischarged insolvent;

 If he/she is not a citizen of India anymore;

 If he/she is disqualified by virtue of any law passed by the parliament of India.

Office of Profit
As it is a ground for disqualification as a member of Parliament, it is essential to understand what exactly does the office of
profit means.

Office of profit refers to any post or position under central or state government which fetches salaries, bonuses, perks and
other benefits to the individual.

However, the quantity of profit gained is irrelevant under this disqualification.

Under section 9 of Representation of people Act and Article 191(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, it is envisaged that no
representative should bear any office of profit.

Disqualifications under the Representation

of Peoples Act
A member of parliament can also be disqualified under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. This act was passed by the
Parliament under Article 327 of the Indian Constitution, which provides for the procedure and the conduct to be followed
during the election to Parliament and state legislatures.

Following are the grounds:

 If he/she is convicted for indulging in corrupt practices during the election or any other election-related offenses.

 If he/she is convicted under certain acts of Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Prevention of
Terrorism Act 2002, etc.

 If he/she is convicted under any law that results for at least two years of imprisonment and will remain
disqualified for a further 6 years after his release.

 If he/she is convicted under any law relating to drugs or dowry prevention.

 Dismissal from the government due to disloyalty or involvement in corrupt practices.

 If he/she fails to lodge their election expenses.

Disqualification on ground of defection
The need for an anti-defection law was felt in India when in 1967, one legislator from Haryana, Gaya Lal, changed his party
thrice in a single day. Also, the General Elections of 1967 saw a great number of defections was seen as around 150 MPs
flitted their political parties.

However, an act tackling such problems was passed by Parliament in the year 1985.

With 52nd amendment to Indian Constitution, provisions regarding disqualification of the basis of defection were inserted in
the 10th schedule of the Indian Constitution.

As per the provisions, the members can be disqualified on the following grounds:

 When members of a political party don’t abide by his/her party leadership or voluntarily resigns from the party.

 When members don’t votes or refrains from voting according to his/her party whip.

 An Independent member stands disqualified if he/she joins a political party.

For nominated members, if he/she is not a member of any political party, he/she if want, has to join a political
party within 6 months of nomination or membership stands canceled.
However, voluntarily giving up membership has quite a broader meaning. In the case of Ravi Naik vs Union of India, giving
up membership doesn’t necessarily mean resigning, but it can also be inferred by the conduct of the member.

Now let’s look for which people have the authority to disqualify the members.

The chairman, in the case of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker, in the case of Lok Sabha has powers to disqualify a member on
grounds of defection.

And, regarding complaints of Speaker/Chairperson involved in defecation, a member elected by the house itself will take
necessary actions regarding the same.

This law also has some exceptions, specifically when political parties merge with some other political party.

Vacation of seats
Now, the question comes in our mind is, what if a member vacates his seat?

And what are the grounds of vacation of seats?

So, to deal with such situations, our Constitution provides us with Article 101 in the Fifth part of the Indian Constitution.

Thus, as envisaged under this Article, a member must vacate his/her seat if

 He/she is elected in both houses as this article clearly states that no person shall be chosen as members in both
the houses.

 He/she becomes a member of the Central legislature as well as a state legislature, then he must vacate his seat
in the house.

 He/she becomes subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned by Parliament

 He/she, without permission of the speaker, is absent from the house for consecutive 60 days
And, after a seat is vacated in either of legislative houses, polls are conducted to fill the vacancy.