Title : STATE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Date : Feb 24, 2022

Description :

Based on a News Article published in the ‘The Hindu’

 

Useful for UPSC CSE Prelims and Mains (GS Paper II)

 

 

 

 

What exactly are Legislative Councils, and why do they matter:

 

• India has a bicameral system, which means that there are two Houses of Parliament. The Vidhan Sabha, or Legislative Assembly, is the state's counterpart of the Lok Sabha, while the Vidhan Parishad, or Legislative Council, is the state's equivalent of the Rajya Sabha.

 

Why do we require a second house:

 

• To function as a check on the popularly elected House's hasty acts.
• To ensure that those who might not be cut out for the rigors of direct elections can nonetheless participate in the legislative process.
• More debate and work sharing between the Houses would be possible with a second chamber.

 

 

Arguments against having a second house include the following:

 

• Rather of achieving the noble goal of electing intellectuals to the legislature, the forum is more likely to be utilized to accommodate party officials who do not succeed in getting elected.
• It is also an unneeded financial burden.
• Legislative Councils, unlike Rajya Sabha, which has significant authority to design non-financial legislation, lack the constitutional mandate to do so. Legislative Assemblies have the authority to override the Council's suggestions/amendments to a bill.
• Members of the Legislative Councils, unlike Rajya Sabha MPs, are not allowed to vote in the election of the President and Vice-President. MLCs are also unable to vote in Rajya Sabha member elections.
• In the case of money bills, the Council can only impose a fourteen-day delay, which is more or less a formality rather than a roadblock in the passage of a Money Bill by the Assembly.

 

 

What is the procedure for forming a legislative council:

 

• According to Article 169 of the constitution, Parliament can construct or abolish the second chamber in a state by law provided the state's Legislative Assembly approves a special majority resolution to that effect.

 

Strength of the SLC:

 

• The total number of members in a state's legislative council shall not exceed one third of the total number of members in that state's legislative Assembly, and the total number of members in a state's legislative council shall in no case be less than 40, according to article 171 clause (1) of the Indian Constitution.

 

 

 

Members of the Council are chosen in a variety of ways:

 

• Members of the Assembly elect 1/3 of the members.
• Members of municipalities, district boards, and other local authorities in the state elect one-third of the electorate.
• Teachers make up one-twelfth of the electorate.
• Registered graduates account for one-twelfth of the total.
• The Governor appoints the remaining members from among persons who have made significant contributions to literature, science, art, the cooperative movement, and social service.

Tags : vidhan parishad, viddhan sabha