Parliament and the State legislatures - Constitutional Law II

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1. Parliament: composition
2. State legislatures
3. Sessions
4. Kinds of Bills and their procedure
5. Joint sitting (Article 108)
6. The money Bill and the Speaker's certificate
7. The budget
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

Learn the Bills table. Questions on “kinds of Bills and their procedure” and on the money Bill are set in almost every paper. If you can state, for each kind of Bill, where it starts, what the Rajya Sabha can do, and whether a joint sitting is available, you have most of this topic.

1. Parliament: composition

Under Article 79 Parliament consists of the President and two Houses, the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha). The President is part of Parliament, though not a member of either House, because no Bill becomes law without assent.

Lok Sabha (Article 81)

Not more than 530 members from the States and 20 from the Union territories, directly elected on adult suffrage (Article 326). The present strength is 543.
The two Anglo-Indian members nominated under Article 331 ceased in January 2020, because the 104th Amendment extended the time limit in Article 334 for SC/ST reservation but not for that nomination.
Seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Article 330). The 106th Amendment (2023) reserves one-third of seats for women (Article 330A), to take effect after the delimitation following the first census taken after its commencement.
Term of five years from the first meeting (Article 83(2)), which may be extended by law one year at a time during a Proclamation of Emergency.

Rajya Sabha (Article 80)

Not more than 250 members: 238 representatives of the States and Union territories, and 12 nominated by the President for knowledge or experience in literature, science, art and social service. The present strength is 245.
State representatives are elected by the elected members of the State Legislative Assembly by proportional representation through the single transferable vote.
A permanent body, not subject to dissolution; one-third of members retire every second year (Article 83(1)); each member serves six years.

2. State legislatures

Article 168 provides for a Legislature in each State consisting of the Governor and one or two Houses. The Legislative Assembly (Article 170) has between 60 and 500 directly elected members, with smaller Assemblies allowed for a few States such as Sikkim, Goa and Mizoram.

The Legislative Council (Article 171) may not exceed one-third of the Assembly's strength and may not be smaller than 40. Roughly one-third is elected by local authorities, one-twelfth by graduates, one-twelfth by teachers, one-third by the members of the Assembly, and the rest are nominated by the Governor. It is a permanent body.

Under Article 169, Parliament may by law abolish or create a Council if the Assembly passes a resolution to that effect by a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of members present and voting. Such a law is not an amendment of the Constitution for the purposes of Article 368. Only six States have Councils today: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

Bicameralism. The case for a second House is revision, delay of hasty legislation, and representation of the States as units. The case against, at State level, is cost and the Council's weakness: it can only delay an ordinary Bill (by up to three months on first transmission and one month on the second, under Article 197) and has no real power over money Bills.

3. Sessions

Under Article 85 the President summons each House so that six months do not pass between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next; the President may also prorogue either House and dissolve the Lok Sabha. Article 174 is the State counterpart. In practice there are three sessions a year: Budget, Monsoon and Winter. A prorogation ends a session but does not affect pending Bills; a dissolution of the Lok Sabha causes Bills pending in it, and Bills passed by it but pending in the Rajya Sabha, to lapse (Article 107).

4. Kinds of Bills and their procedure

Ordinary Bills — may begin in either House; pass three readings (introduction, consideration with committee stage, passing) in each House; then assent under Article 111. A deadlock is resolved by a joint sitting.
Money Bills (Article 110) — introduced only in the Lok Sabha and only on the President's recommendation (Article 117(1)). The Rajya Sabha must return the Bill within 14 days and may only make recommendations, which the Lok Sabha may reject (Article 109). The President cannot return a money Bill for reconsideration.
Financial Bills (Article 117) — a Category I financial Bill (117(1)) contains a money-Bill matter along with other matters; it needs the President's recommendation and must start in the Lok Sabha, but is otherwise passed like an ordinary Bill. A Category II Bill (117(3)) only involves expenditure from the Consolidated Fund; it can start in either House, but neither House may pass it without the President's recommendation for consideration.
Constitution Amendment Bills (Article 368) — either House; a special majority in each House separately; ratification by half the States where the federal provisions are affected; no joint sitting; the President must assent.

5. Joint sitting (Article 108)

Where a Bill passed by one House is rejected by the other, or the Houses disagree on amendments, or more than six months pass without the other House passing it, the President may summon a joint sitting. The Speaker presides, and the Bill is passed by a majority of the total members of both Houses present and voting, which gives the Lok Sabha the advantage of numbers. No joint sitting is possible for a money Bill or a Constitution Amendment Bill. There have been only three: the Dowry Prohibition Bill (1961), the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill (1978) and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill (2002).

6. The money Bill and the Speaker's certificate

A Bill is a money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with the matters in Article 110(1)(a) to (f) — taxes, borrowing, the Consolidated and Contingency Funds, appropriation, charged expenditure, receipts of the Consolidated Fund or public account — and (g) matters incidental to them. Article 110(3) says the Speaker's decision is “final”, and Article 110(4) requires the Speaker's certificate to be endorsed on the Bill.

The word “only” is the dispute. Certifying a Bill as a money Bill shuts the Rajya Sabha out, so a government without a majority there has a strong motive to stretch the category.

In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, 2018 INSC 880, (2019) 1 SCC 1 (the Aadhaar case), the majority upheld the Aadhaar Act, 2016 as a money Bill because its core, section 7, ties Aadhaar to subsidies and benefits paid out of the Consolidated Fund. Chandrachud J dissented: the Act went well beyond Article 110, and certifying it as a money Bill was a fraud on the Constitution that bypassed the Rajya Sabha.
In Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank Ltd., 2019 INSC 1236, (2020) 6 SCC 1, a five-judge Bench examining the Finance Act, 2017 (which restructured tribunals) held that the Speaker's certificate is not immune from judicial review: the finality in Article 110(3) and the bar in Article 122 cover procedural irregularity, not a substantive breach of the Constitution. Doubting the way the Aadhaar majority had interpreted Article 110, it referred the scope of the money Bill to a larger Bench.

Problem. A Bill amending the qualifications of tribunal members is introduced as a money Bill and certified by the Speaker; the Rajya Sabha's recommendations are ignored. Is the Act valid? Answer: the Speaker's certificate is open to review (Rojer Mathew). The court asks whether the Bill contains “only” Article 110 matters. Tribunal service conditions are not taxation, borrowing or appropriation, so the certificate is open to attack, following the Aadhaar dissent and the reference in Rojer Mathew; the final answer awaits the larger Bench.

7. The budget

Article 112 — the annual financial statement, laid before both Houses. Expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund (the President's emoluments, judges' salaries, debt charges and the like) is discussed but not voted.
Article 113 — other expenditure is presented as demands for grants, which only the Lok Sabha votes. Cut motions (policy cut, economy cut, token cut) are moved at this stage.
Article 114 — the Appropriation Bill authorises withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund; no money may be withdrawn without it (Article 266(3)).
Articles 115 and 116 — supplementary and excess grants, the vote on account, votes of credit and exceptional grants.
The Finance Bill gives effect to the taxation proposals.

How this is examined

Recent KSLU papers ask about the kinds of Bills and the procedure for passing them, and separately about the money Bill. For the first, walk through ordinary, money, financial and amendment Bills and close with the joint sitting. For the money Bill, define it from Article 110, give the Rajya Sabha's 14-day limit, then discuss the Speaker's certificate with the Aadhaar case and Rojer Mathew. A short note on the Rajya Sabha, the legislative council or the joint sitting is also common.