Houses of Parliament and Their Members

Composition:

• Article 79: Parliament is the President and the two Houses, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People).
• Rajya Sabha: at most 250 members, 238 from States and Union Territories and 12 nominated by the President (Article 80) for knowledge or experience in literature, science, art and social service. A State's members are elected indirectly, by the elected members of its Legislative Assembly, by the single transferable vote. Seats go roughly by population (Fourth Schedule).
• Lok Sabha: members from States and Union Territories are directly elected; seats are reserved for SCs and STs (Article 330).

The Rajya Sabha's own powers:

• Article 249: by a two-thirds resolution it can let Parliament make a law on a State List subject in the national interest.
• Article 312: by a two-thirds resolution it can let Parliament create a new All India Service.

Bicameralism (two Houses) lets a second chamber check the first and the executive. Its standard criticism is that a House whose members are nominated or indirectly elected can block the directly elected one.

The office (Articles 93 to 96 and 100):

• Elected by the Lok Sabha from among its members; vacates office on ceasing to be a member.
• Resigns by writing to the Deputy Speaker (and the Deputy Speaker to the Speaker).
• Removed by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members of the Lok Sabha, after 14 days' notice.
• While the office is vacant, the Deputy Speaker performs its duties.
• Article 100: the Speaker does not vote in the first instance, but has a casting vote when the votes are equal.
• The Speaker presides over a joint sitting, certifies money bills and decides defection cases in the Lok Sabha.
• Article 120: business is in Hindi or English, but the presiding officer may let a member who cannot express himself in either speak in his mother tongue.

Article 102 has two parts:

• Article 102(1): a person is disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member if he holds an office of profit under a government (other than one Parliament has exempted by law), is of unsound mind and so declared by a court, is an undischarged insolvent, is not a citizen or has voluntarily acquired a foreign citizenship, or is disqualified by a law of Parliament. Under Article 103 the President decides such a question, on the Election Commission's opinion.
• Article 102(2): a person is disqualified for being a member if he is disqualified under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law, added by the 52nd Amendment, 1985).

The Tenth Schedule:

• A member is disqualified if he voluntarily gives up his party's membership, or votes or abstains contrary to the party's direction without prior permission (unless the party condones it within 15 days).
• An independent who joins a party is disqualified; a nominated member who joins a party after six months is disqualified.
• Merger exception: no disqualification if two-thirds of the legislature party agree to merge with another party. Members who do not accept the merger and work as a separate group are also protected.
• The question is decided by the Speaker (Lok Sabha) or Chairman (Rajya Sabha). The decision is open to judicial review (Kihoto Hollohan, 1992).

Article 105 and the practice of the House:

• Freedom of speech in Parliament: a separate guarantee, not cut down by the limits on Article 19(1)(a).
• No proceedings in any court for anything said or any vote given in Parliament or its committees. Words said outside the House get no such cover.
• Freedom from arrest in civil cases only, during a session and 40 days before and after it. There is no protection from arrest on a criminal charge or under preventive detention.
• A question of privilege gets priority over other listed business, and the Speaker may refer one on his own (suo motu) to the Committee of Privileges.
• The Attorney General also has the privileges of an MP (Article 105(4)).