Parliament : Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha, Joint Sitting & Speakers

Parliament of India

According to article 79 the Parliament of India consists of the President, the Rajya Sabha and the Loksabha.
Rajya Sabha is the upper house and Loksabha is the lower house of the Parliament.

Rajya Sabha

The maximum strength of Rajya Sabha is 250. Out of this 238 members are the representative of the state and union territories and 12 members are nominated by the President.
The present strength of Rajya Sabha is 245. Out of this 12 members are nominated by the President and 229 members represent the states and 4 members represent the union territories.
The representatives of states in Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the State Legislature. States are represented in Rajya Sabha according to population.

Eligibility

Article 84 of the Constitution lays down the qualifications for membership of Parliament. A person to be qualified for the membership of the Rajya Sabha should posses the following qualifications:

he must be a citizen of India and make and subscribe before some person authorized in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule to the Constitution;

he must be not less than 30 years of age;

he must possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.

Dissolution & term

Rajya Sabha is a permanent House and is not subject to dissolution. However, one-third Members of Rajya Sabha retire after every second year. A member who is elected for a full term serves for a period of six years.

The Vice-President is the Chairman of the Rajya Sabah. Present Chairman of Rajya Sabha is Hamid Ansari and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha is K. Rahman Khan.
Rajya Sabha has right to give only suggestions in Money Bill.
The first session of Rajya Sabha was held on May 13, 1952.
Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry are only UTs also represented in Rajya Sabha.

Strength of States and Union Territories in the Rajya Sabha

State	Strength	State	Strength
Uttar Pradesh	31	Chhattisgarh	5
Maharashtra	19	Haryana	5
Andhra Pradesh	18	Jammu and Kashmir	4
Tamil Nadu	18	Himachal Pradesh	3
Bihar	16	Uttaranchal	3
West Bengal	16	Nagaland	1
Karnataka	12	Mizoram	1
Madhya Pradesh	11	Meghalaya	1
Gujarat	11	Manipur	1
Orissa	10	Tripura	1
Rajasthan	10	Sikkim	1
Kerala	9	Arunachal Pradesh	1
Punjab	7	Goa	1
Assam	7	Delhi	3
Jharkhand	6	Pondicherry	1

Prime Ministers Elected from the Rajya Sabha

Name	Time Period
Indira Gandhi	1966-1967
H.D. Dev Goudha	1996-1997
I.K. Gujral	1997-1998
Dr. Manmohan Singh	2004-till date

Lok Sabha

Maximum and important parliamentary work is done in Lok Sabha.
The maximum strength of Lok Sabha is 552.
530 : From states
20 : From Union Territories
2 : From Anglo Indian Community
Present strength of Lok Sabha is 545. Out of these 530 members are from states, 13 members are from union territories and 2 members are nominated by the President from the Anglo-Indian community.
According to the 84th amendment act 2001 the seats of Lok Sabha and State Legislative are fixed till 2026.
The time period of Lok Sabha is 5 years. But it can be dissolved before its time period by the President.
Lok Sabha was dissolved by the President for 8 times: in 1970, 1977, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1997 and 1999.

Eligibility

The candidate must be a citizen of India.

He must have completed an age of 25 years.

He must not hold any Government office/ position of profit.

A member of Lok Sabha can be disqualified if he absents for 60 days without intimation.
The time period of Lok Sabha can be extended in case of emergency. But it cannot be extended more than 1 year.
There should not be a period of 6 months elapsed between 2 sessions of Lok Sabha.
The First Lok Sabha was constituted on 15 April 1952 after India's first general election and it lasted its full tenure of five years and was dissolved on 17, 1952.
The Quorum of Lok Sabha is 1/10th of the total strength that is 55.

Strength of States and Union Territories in the lok Sabha

State	Strength	State	Strength
Uttar Pradesh	80	Uttaranchal	5
Maharashtra	48	Himachal Pradesh	4
Andhra Pradesh	42	Meghalaya	2
West Bengal	42	Arunachal Pradesh	2
Bihar	20	Goa	2
Tamil Nadu	39	Manipur	2
Madhya Pradesh	29	Tripura	2
Karnataka	28	Sikkim	1
Gujarat	26	Nagaland	1
Rajasthan	25	Mizoram	1
Orissa	21	Delhi	7
Kerala	20	Pondicherry	1
Jharkhand	14	Chandigarh	1
Assam	14	Dadra &Nagar Haveli	1
Punjab	13	Andaman & Nicobar	1
Chhattisgarh	11	Lakshadweep	1
Haryana	10	Daman & Diu	1
Jammu and Kashmir	6

Joint Sitting

Joint session of Parliament may be summoned by the President in following situations:
If any bill is rejected by either house of Parliament.
The amendments made by one house are not accepted by the other house.
In case a bill remains pending for more than 6 months.
Joint sitting is presided over by the Speaker or, in his absence, by the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha or in his absence, the Chairman or in his absence the Deputy-Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Joint session is not summoned in case of a Money Bill and a constitutional amendment bill.

The Speaker of Lok Sabha

According to the article 93 the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Loksabha are elected by the members of Loksabha.
The time period of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Loksabha is 5 years. If they want to quit before the completion of their full term, they can do so by submitting their resignation to one another.
The Speaker of the Lok Sabha does not take oath as speaker of Lok Sabha but he takes oath as a member of the Lok Sabha.
In absence of Speaker Deputy Speaker or in his absence the oldest person of the 6 member’s panel made by the President leads the session.
Speaker decides whether a bill is money bill or not and his decision about a money bill is final.
He has no right to vote in Loksabha. But in case of tie he can cast the vote.

Speakers

First Lok Sabha Speaker was G.V. Mavalankar.
Mira Kumar is the present Lok Sabha Speaker. She is also the first lady Speaker of Lok Sabha.
Karia Munda is the present Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha.