The Lok Sabha is known as Lower House, it is also called popular House because it represents the people of India. This article is important as the factual part of preamble is asked in the prelims exam Preamble is also part of Mains GS paper - 2 syllabus.

TOPIC

MEMBERSHIP & ELECTION

  • First point to be noted about Rajya Sabha is that it is a permanent body as it cannot be dissolved, but one-third of its members retire every two years.
  • The membership of the Rajya Sabha cannot exceed 250.There are at present 245 members in Rajya Sabha.
  • Out of these 250, the President nominates 12 members on the basis of their excellence in literature, science, art and social service and the rest are elected.
  • Since Rajya Sabha represents States in Indian Union, its members are elected by the State legislatures.
  • Election: The elected members of the States’ Legislative Assemblies elect the Rajya Sabha MPs on the basis of proportional representation through the single transferable vote system according to their state quota.
  • All the States do not send equal number of members to the Rajya Sabha. Their representative number is decided on the basis of population of the respective State. Therefore, the bigger State gets higher representation and the smaller ones have lesser representation.
  • Delhi Assembly sends three members to Rajya Sabha and Puducherry sends one member. All other Union Territories do not get representation in the Rajya Sabha.

QUALIFICATION

Any Indian citizen is eligible of becoming a member of Lok Sabha if he/she fulfils the following qualifications:

  1. He/she should be not less than 25 years of age.
  2. He/she should take an oath or affirmation that he holds true faith and allegiance in the Constitution and that he will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India.
  3. He/she must be registered as a voter in any  Constituency in India.
  4. Person contesting from the reserved seat should belong to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

TENURE

The normal term of Lok Sabha is five years. But the President, can dissolve it before the expiry of five years term on the advice of Council of Ministers. Also, in the case of national emergency, the term of Lok Sabha can be extended for one year at a time. But this should not exceed six months after the emergency is over.

PRESIDING OFFICERS

  • The presiding officer of Lok Sabha is known as the Speaker. The conduct of business in Lok Sabha is the responsibility of the Speaker.
  • The members of the House elect him/her after the new Lok Sabha forms.
  • He/she remains in the office of the Speaker even after Lok Sabha is dissolved till the next House elects a new Speaker in his/her place.
  • In the absence of the Speaker, a Deputy Speaker, who is also elected by the House presides over the meetings.
  • Removal: Both the Speaker as well as the Deputy Speaker can be removed from office by a resolution of Lok Sabha passed by a majority of the members of the House.

Some of the powers and functions of the speaker are mentioned below :

  1. The basic function of the Speaker is to preside over the house and conduct the meetings of the House in orderly manner. No member can speak in the House without his/her permission.
  2. He/she may ask a member to finish his speech and in case the member does not obey he/she may order that the speech should not be recorded.
  3. All the Bills, reports, motions and resolutions are introduced with Speaker’s permission.
  4. He/she puts the motion or bill to vote. He/she does not participate in the voting but when there is a tie i.e. equal number of votes on both sides, he/she can use his casting vote.
  5. His/her decisions in all parliamentary matters are final. He/She also rules on points of order raised by the members and her decision is final.
  6. He/she is the custodian of rights and privileges of the members.
  7. He/she disqualifies a member of his/her membership in case of defection.
  8. He/she also accepts the resignation of members and decides about the genuineness of the resignation.
  9. In case of joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the Speaker presides over the meeting. This highlights superiority of Lok Sabha over the Rajya Sabha.

Loksabha is one of the most important part of Parliament and is an important topic for UPSC prelims as well as UPSC mains. To read More articles on Polity Click here