Parliament of India
The
Parliament of India (or
Sansad) is
bicameral. It is located in
New Delhi at Sansad Marg. This is the supreme legislative body of the
Republic of
India.
The Indian Parliament consists of two houses - the
Lok Sabha and the
Rajya Sabha - and the
President of India.
Any
bill can become an
act only after it is passed by both the houses of the Parliament and assented by the President.
The
Lok Sabha is also known as the "House of the People" or the
lower house. Almost all of its members are directly elected by citizens of India. It is the more powerful of the two houses since it can precede or overrule the upper house in many matters.The Lok Sabha has 545 members as of now. The number of members in Lok Sabha is regulated by Article 81 of the Constitution of India. It has a term of 5 years (it may be dissolved earlier by the President in the event of no party getting a majority). 543 members are directly elected by the people in a general election:
*530 members are elected from the States.
*13 members are elected from the Union territories.
*2 members of the Anglo-Indian community are nominated by the President if he is of the opinion that they are not adequately represented.
The representatives from States and Union Territories are directly elected by the people on the basis of universal adult suffrage. Every citizen who is over 18 years of age is eligible to vote. There is reservation of some seats for members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but not for members of any other community.
The
Rajya Sabha is also known as Council of
States or the
upper house. Its members are indirectly elected by members of legislative bodies of the states.
The Rajya Sabha has 250 members in all. Elections to it are scheduled and the chamber cannot be dissolved legally. Each member has a term of 6 years and elections are held for one-third of the seats after every 2 years. The composition is specified in Article 80 of the
Constitution of India.
*12 members are nominated by the President from people having special
knowledge or
experience in
literature,
science,
art or
social services.
*Representatives of States are elected by the elected members of the
Legislative Assembly of the State in accordance with system of
proportional representation by means of
single transferable vote.
*Representatives of Union Territories are indirectly elected by members of an
electoral college for that territory in accordance with system of
proportional representation.
The Council of States is designed to maintain the
federal character of the country. The number of members from a state depends on the
population of the state (e.g. 31 from
Uttar Pradesh and 1 from
Nagaland).
The Houses of Parliament (
Sansad Bhavan) is a circular structure designed by the South African Architect
Herbert Baker in 1911. The roof of the outer circle of the structure is supported by 257 granite pillars. The Houses are located on Janpath, a stone's throw away from the presidential palace (
Rashtrapati Bhavan).
A heavily armed '
fedayeen' (suicide squad) attempted to storm India's parliament complex on December 13, 2001, triggering a firefight in which six militants, six police officers and a gardener perished. At least 25 people were injured in the gun battle and most of them were evacuated to a nearby government hospital. According to eyewitness, the attackers, burst into the area in front of the parliament just before noon local time (0630 GMT) dressed in black military fatigues and drove through the outer barricades opening fire and lobbing grenades when they could not pass through the inner security ring. One attacker was wearing explosives strapped to his body and blew himself up soon after the men broke in. Security forces immediately sealed off the red sandstone parliament building where discussions were to have begun on a new anti-terrorist bill.
India says that the groups behind the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament —
Jaish-e-Mohammed and
Lashkar-e-Toiba are Kashmiri militant groups operating from
Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK or
Azad Kashmir) and both believed to be members of the
United Jihad Council (UJC).
*
The Parliament of India official web site
