5.18 How Does the Parliament Make Laws?

The basic function of any legislature is to make laws for its people. A definite procedure is followed in the process of making law. Some of the procedures of lawmaking are mentioned in the Constitution; others have evolved from conventions. As you follow a bill through the legislative process you will see that lawmaking in India is technical and even tedious — precisely because the framers wanted hasty laws to be impossible.

5.18.1 The Four Types of Bills

Within Parliament, four broad categories of bills appear. The NCERT chart classifies them as follows.

5.18.2 The Bill’s Journey — From Cabinet to Statute

Even before a bill is introduced in the Parliament, there can be a lot of debate on the need for such a bill. A political party may pressurise the government to initiate a bill in order to fulfil its election promises or to improve its chances of winning forthcoming elections. Interest groups, the media and citizens’ forums may also persuade the government for a particular legislation. Lawmaking is thus not merely a legal procedure but also a political course of action.

The preparation of a bill itself involves many considerations — resources required to implement the law, the support or opposition the bill is likely to produce, the impact on the electoral prospects of the ruling party, and so on. In coalition politics, a bill proposed by the government has to be acceptable to all the partners of the coalition. The Cabinet considers all these before deciding to enact a law. Once the Cabinet approves the policy, the task of drafting begins. The draft of any bill is prepared by the concerned ministry. (For instance, a bill raising the marriageable age of girls from 18 to 21 will be prepared by the Law Ministry, with inputs from the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare.)

5.18.3 The Three Readings & the Role of Committees

Within Parliament, a bill may be introduced in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha by a member of the House. Often a minister responsible for the subject introduces the bill. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha; once passed there, it is sent to the Rajya Sabha for its (limited) action.

A large part of the discussion on bills takes place in the Standing Committees^?. The recommendation of the committee is then sent to the House. That is why committees are called miniature legislatures. This is the second stage in the lawmaking process. In the third and final stage, the bill is voted upon. If a non-money bill is passed by one House, it is sent to the other House where it goes through exactly the same procedure.

If there is disagreement between the two Houses on a non-money bill, attempt is made to resolve it through a joint sitting. In the few instances when joint sittings have been called to resolve a deadlock, the decision has always gone in favour of the Lok Sabha (because of its larger size). Once a bill is passed by both Houses, it is sent to the President for assent. The President’s assent results in the bill becoming a law.

5.19 How Does the Parliament Control the Executive?

In a parliamentary democracy, the executive is drawn from the party or a coalition that has a majority in the Lok Sabha. It is not difficult for such an executive to exercise unlimited and arbitrary powers. Parliamentary democracy may slip into Cabinet dictatorship, where the Cabinet leads and the House merely follows. Only an active and vigilant Parliament can keep an effective check on the executive.

5.19.1 The Five Daily Instruments

The legislature in a parliamentary system ensures executive accountability at three stages: policy making, implementation, and post-implementation. It does so through a set of formal instruments.

5.19.2 Why Question Hour Matters Most

Perhaps the question hour is the most effective method of keeping vigil on the executive and the administrative agencies of the government. Members of Parliament have shown great interest in question hour and maximum attendance is recorded during this time. Most questions aim at eliciting information on issues of public interest such as price rise, availability of food grains, atrocities on weaker sections of society, riots and black-marketing. The discussions during question hour are often heated — members raise their voice, walk to the well of the House, or walk out in protest. Even though such actions cause loss of legislative time, they remain political techniques to gain concessions from the government and force executive accountability.

5.19.3 Approval, Financial Control and No-Confidence

Beyond debate, Parliament controls the executive through three structural levers:

• Approval and ratification of laws. A bill can become law only with Parliament’s approval. A government with disciplined majority finds this easy — but never automatic. Bargaining among ruling and opposition parties is constant. The 1977 Janata Party rule and the 2000 NDA rule both saw the government with a Lok Sabha majority but not a Rajya Sabha majority — forcing concessions to pass laws. Some bills, like the Lok Pal Bill, have failed; the Prevention of Terrorism Bill (2002) was rejected by the Rajya Sabha.
• Financial control. Preparation and presentation of the budget is a constitutional obligation. Through this, Parliament controls the government’s purse strings — it can refuse to grant resources, can enquire into misuse of funds (using reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee), and through financial control it ultimately controls the policies of the government.
• No-confidence motion. The most powerful weapon. As long as the government has the support of its party or coalition, the power of the Lok Sabha to dismiss the government is largely fictional. But after 1989, several governments have been forced to resign because they failed to retain the support of their coalition partners.

5.20 What Do the Committees of Parliament Do?

A significant feature of the legislative process is the appointment of committees for various legislative purposes. Since the Parliament meets only during sessions, it has very limited time at its disposal. Lawmaking requires in-depth study, which demands more attention and time than a House debate can spare. Other important functions — studying demands for grants, looking into expenditure, investigating corruption — also need detailed work. Parliamentary committees perform these functions.

Since 1983, India has developed a system of parliamentary standing committees^?. There are over twenty such departmentally related Standing Committees. Standing Committees supervise the work of various departments, their budget, their expenditure and bills that come up in the House relating to the department.

5.20.1 Three Kinds of Committees

The committee system has reduced the burden on Parliament. Many important bills have been referred to committees. Parliament has merely approved the work done in the committees with few occasional alterations. Of course, legally speaking, no bill can become law and no budget can be sanctioned unless approved by Parliament. But Parliament rarely rejects the suggestions made by the committees.

5.21 How Does the Parliament Regulate Itself?

Parliament is, above all, a debating forum. It is through debates that Parliament performs its vital functions. Such discussions must be meaningful and orderly so that the dignity of the House is intact. The Constitution itself has made certain provisions to ensure smooth conduct of business. The presiding officer of the legislature is the final authority in matters of regulating business.

There is one more way in which presiding officers control the behaviour of members — the anti-defection law. Most members of legislatures are elected on the ticket of some political party. What if they decide to leave the party after getting elected? For many years after independence, this issue was unresolved. Eventually there was an agreement among the parties that a legislator elected on one party’s ticket must be restricted from defecting to another party. An amendment to the Constitution was made (the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985). This is known as the anti-defection amendment^?. It has been subsequently modified by the 91st Amendment, 2003.

5.21.1 What Counts as Defection?

The presiding officer^? (the Speaker in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, the Chairman in the Rajya Sabha) is the authority who takes the final decision on all such cases. If it is proved that a member has defected, the member loses the membership of the House. Besides, such a person is also disqualified from holding any political office like ministership.

5.21.2 The 52nd vs 91st Amendments — Why the Change?

5.21.3 Has Anti-Defection Worked?

Experience of the past decades shows that the anti-defection amendment has not been fully able to curb defections, but it has given additional powers to party leadership and to presiding officers over members. NCERT’s assessment is sober: the law strengthens party discipline at the cost of the individual conscience of the legislator. The debate over whether this trade-off is healthy for democracy continues.

5.22 Conclusion — The Democratic Potential of the Parliament

If you watch a live telecast of Parliament, you will find that our Parliament is truly a rainbow of colourful dresses symbolising different regions of the country. Members speak in different languages. They come from various castes, religions and sects. They often fight bitterly. Many times an impression is created that they are wasting the time and money of the nation. But, as we have seen in this chapter, these same parliamentarians can effectively control the executive. They express the interests of various sections of our society. On account of its composition, the legislature is the most representative of all organs of government. The sheer presence of members of diverse social backgrounds makes the legislature potentially more responsive to people’s expectations. Herein lies the democratic potential of the Parliament.

5.23 NCERT Exercises — All Ten Questions, Fully Answered

5.24 Summary — Chapter 5 at a Glance

5.25 Key Terms