Parliament and State Legislatures · UPPCS (Uttar Pradesh)

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, General Studies II:

Parliament and State legislatures: structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers and privileges and concerned issues.

Parliament (Articles 79 to 122): the President, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha: maximum strength under Article 81, direct election, five-year term, delimitation and reservation of seats for SCs and STs; nominated Anglo-Indian seats ended by the 104th Amendment
Rajya Sabha: permanent House, one-third of members retire every second year, election by state assemblies through proportional representation by single transferable vote, 12 members nominated by the President
State legislatures (Articles 168 to 212): Legislative Assembly; Legislative Council where it exists, created or abolished by Parliament on an assembly resolution (Article 169)
Uttar Pradesh: a bicameral legislature with a Vidhan Sabha of 403 elected members and a Vidhan Parishad of 100 members; the state elects 80 members of the Lok Sabha and 31 of the Rajya Sabha
Qualifications and disqualifications of members (Articles 84, 102, 173, 191); the Tenth Schedule

Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly; Chairman (the Vice-President) and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha; Chairman of the Legislative Council
Speaker pro tem; the Speaker's powers in certifying Money Bills and deciding disqualification under the Tenth Schedule (Kihoto Hollohan, 1992)

Summoning, adjournment, prorogation and dissolution; no more than six months between two sessions (Articles 85 and 174); quorum
Question Hour (starred, unstarred and short notice questions), Zero Hour, half-an-hour discussion
Motions: adjournment, calling attention, no-confidence, censure, privilege, cut motions; resolutions
Bills: ordinary, Money Bills (Article 110), Financial Bills, Constitution Amendment Bills; private members' Bills; lapse of Bills on dissolution
Joint sitting (Article 108) and its three uses (1961, 1978, 2002)
Budget: annual financial statement (Article 112), charged and voted expenditure, demands for grants, Appropriation and Finance Bills, vote on account, guillotine
Committees: Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee, Committee on Public Undertakings, Departmentally Related Standing Committees (since 1993), Business Advisory, Privileges and Ethics Committees; select and joint committees on Bills

Legislative, financial, executive control, electoral, judicial (impeachment and removal) and constituent powers
Privileges under Articles 105 and 194: freedom of speech in the House, immunity from proceedings for anything said or any vote given, right to publish proceedings, exclusion of strangers
Collective and individual privileges; breach of privilege and contempt of the House
Absence of codified privileges; judicial review of privilege decisions

Fewer sitting days and frequent disruptions; time lost and quality of debate
Fewer Bills sent to committees; passing of Bills without detailed discussion
Certification of Bills as Money Bills to bypass the Rajya Sabha
Ordinances and their re-promulgation (D. C. Wadhwa, 1987; Krishna Kumar Singh, 2017)
Anti-defection law: delays by Speakers, effect on dissent within parties
Criminal antecedents of legislators; representation of women and the 106th Amendment, 2023
Role and relevance of upper houses and Legislative Councils