Chapter 6

The Parliamentary System: Legislature and Executive

India's Parliament is where laws are debated, made, and where the government answers for its decisions. This chapter looks at how the Parliament is put together, how it makes laws, how it holds the government accountable, and how the same structure repeats at the state level.

Introduction

India's independence came after years of struggle and great sacrifice, and once the country was free, its citizens finally had the power to decide how they would be governed. The very first big step in this new chapter of the nation's life was drafting the Constitution of India, a comprehensive document that laid down the country's foundational principles — including Universal Adult Franchise, which guarantees every adult citizen the right to vote regardless of social or economic background, gender, race, or religion.

People elect their representatives directly to the Lok Sabha, and the majority group among these elected members forms the government. The Parliament is the supreme legislative body — it makes the country's laws, comprises all the people's elected representatives, and controls and guides the work of the government. Because of this, the government can be seen as functioning entirely with the people's consent.

There have been 17 Lok Sabhas since the first one in 1952; the 18th was constituted in June 2024. India's old Parliament building (now called Samvidhan Sadan) served the country for over seven decades before a new Parliament building — built to accommodate growing needs of capacity, technology, sustainability, and safety — took over.

Composition of the Parliament of India

The Indian Parliament is made up of the President and two houses: the Lok Sabha (House of the People, the lower house) and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States, the upper house). A system with two houses like this is called bicameral — "bi" meaning two, "cameral" meaning chamber.

People choose their Lok Sabha representatives through direct election, based on universal adult suffrage. Rajya Sabha members, by contrast, are elected indirectly by an electoral college.

Whether India should have one house or two was debated extensively while drafting the Constitution; a single directly elected house was felt to be inadequate for the challenges an independent India would face, so in the spirit of federalism a second house, the Rajya Sabha, was added, with its own distinct composition and election process. Federalism itself is a form of government where power is shared between the centre, the states, and local governments, balancing national unity with local interests.

Function

Each house has a presiding officer who keeps debates and discussions orderly. In the Lok Sabha, members elect a Speaker, who conducts sessions, gives members the floor, maintains discipline, and ensures the rules are followed. The Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, is presided over by the Vice President of India, who acts as its chairperson.

The Parliament's executive responsibility — making sure laws are actually implemented and enforced — matters just as much as its legislative function of making them. This is where the Union Executive comes in, giving life to the Parliament's legislative power. It consists of the President, the Vice President, and the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister. The Council of Ministers is drawn from MPs of both houses and is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

To make debates accessible across the country, simultaneous interpretation is offered in many Indian languages — 12 originally, with six more recently added:

• Bodo
• Dogri
• Maithili
• Manipuri
• Urdu
• Sanskrit

Legislative Functions of the Parliament

The Constitution lays down the key functions the Parliament must fulfil, broadly grouped under four heads: constitutional functions, lawmaking, executive accountability, and financial accountability.

1) Constitutional function

The Parliament is directly entrusted with upholding the Constitution's core values:

• Enabling parliamentary democracy through universal adult suffrage
• Following the separation of powers between the legislature, executive, and judiciary
• Ensuring federalism
• Upholding Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy through the laws and policies it frames

2) Lawmaking

Making laws is among the legislature's primary jobs, and the Constitution lays out an elaborate process for it. A law generally comes into force through an instrument called an act. Before that, it exists as a bill — a draft of a proposed law that must be approved by Parliament before it can be enacted.

The journey of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE) shows how this works:

1. Its roots go back to the Directive Principles of State Policy, and in the early 1990s courts argued it was inherently part of the Fundamental Right to Life.
2. Parliamentary action began with the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002, which added Article 21A mandating free, compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14.
3. The bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha six years later, studied by a committee that suggested modifications, and debated mainly over funding.
4. It was finally passed in the Lok Sabha in August 2009 before receiving the President's assent and becoming an Act.

That's one Act's journey — but every bill, not just the RTE, follows the same general path to becoming law:

1. Introduction in either house
2. A reading of the bill — a tradition going back to the British Parliament, where a clerk would read a bill aloud for MPs who couldn't read it themselves; today MPs read it beforehand
3. Referral to a Standing Committee (not every bill is sent to one)
4. Consideration and passing with clause-by-clause discussion
5. A repeat of the whole process in the other house
6. The President's assent
7. A gazette notification — the official government publication that announces legal documents

A clause is simply a part of the bill spelling out a specific detail, such as RTE's clause defining the 6-to-14 age group it covers.

Even serious lawmaking has room for wit. While presenting the 2025-26 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recited a verse from the Tirukkural, an ancient Tamil treatise on ethics, comparing citizens awaiting good governance to living beings awaiting rain — drawing enthusiastic desk-thumping from the Treasury Benches. In 2011, Sushma Swaraj challenged the government in the Lok Sabha with a poetic couplet questioning its leadership, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh replied in kind with a verse of his own, asking to be judged by his zeal and perseverance rather than by appearances.

3) Executive accountability

The Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, as part of the Union Executive, are primarily responsible for implementing and enforcing laws and overseeing the government's day-to-day running, guided by the Constitution and its laws. They remain answerable to the Lok Sabha through mechanisms like Question Hour — typically the first hour of a parliamentary session — where MPs question ministers about government policies and activities, forcing them to justify their actions. Special committees, often drawing MPs from different parties, hold similar meetings where ministries must explain their policies.

4) Financial accountability

The Parliament approves and monitors government spending through the annual budget, examining how funds are distributed to different ministries, and the government is expected to give Parliament timely, accurate information about its finances.

Executive Functions of Parliament

Having looked at the legislature's role, we turn now to the executive side more closely.

1) The President

The President is the Head of State and the nominal head of the Executive, while the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers actually run the government day to day. Key duties include, among others:

• Appointing the Prime Minister and other ministers
• Summoning Parliament
• Giving assent to bills

The President is aided and advised in these duties by the Council of Ministers. In specific situations — particularly a political crisis, such as no party winning a clear Lok Sabha majority — the President can exercise discretionary powers.

2) The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers

The Prime Minister is the real, day-to-day executive authority in India's parliamentary system. The President appoints the leader of the Lok Sabha's majority party or coalition to this role, and the Prime Minister governs with the backing of the majority of Lok Sabha MPs.

Key functions include:

• Leading the Council of Ministers
• Advising the President
• Coordinating the work of different ministries
• Shaping national policy

Most bills that reach Parliament for discussion are actually initiated by the government itself, and a permanent group of officials known as civil servants (or administrators and bureaucrats) work under ministers to keep government departments running smoothly.

Differences Between the Legislature and the Executive

Though they work together, the legislature and executive have distinct roles. In terms of composition, the legislature — Parliament — consists of the President, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha, while the executive consists of the President, Vice President, and the Prime-Minister-led Council of Ministers. Their main roles differ too: the legislature makes laws and oversees the executive's work, while the executive enforces the laws the legislature makes.

• The legislature can introduce some bills itself, but most bills actually reach Parliament through the executive.
• The legislature keeps a check on the executive by asking questions and demanding explanations; the executive, in turn, must supply information and explanations about its decisions, and it aids and advises the President — including on calling Parliament's sessions.
• The legislature sanctions all government-related expenses, while the executive prepares and implements the budget that Parliament has approved.
• The legislature consults various parliamentary committees, while the executive can generally act independently in day-to-day matters, consulting committees only when required.

The Judiciary — Role of Checks and Balances

The Judiciary is the branch of government responsible for interpreting and applying the country's laws, including in specific disputes, and it functions through a system of courts. It acts as the custodian of the Constitution, making sure every branch of government stays within constitutional bounds — checking that laws passed by Parliament don't violate the Constitution, and stepping in if a violation occurs when the executive implements laws. Just as Parliament works through its legislative and executive arms, the Judiciary works through its courts.

Together, the legislature, executive, and judiciary illustrate the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances that keeps any single organ of government from becoming too powerful.

Legislative and Executive Functions at the State Level

Just as the Union has a Parliament with legislative and executive functions, every state has its own legislature and executive, centred on its State Assembly. Where Parliament has MPs, states have Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), who make laws on subjects in the State List and the Concurrent List.

Union List, State List, and Concurrent List

The Constitution sorts subjects into three lists that clarify who can legislate on what:

• Union List — matters only the Union can legislate on
• State List — matters only the States can legislate on
• Concurrent List — subjects both levels can legislate on, though if the Union government legislates on one, states must follow it

Education is a good example: though it sits on the Concurrent List, the RTE Act applies uniformly across the whole country because the Union legislated on it. Specific matters like education and environmental policy end up needing this kind of Union-state collaboration, which is really federalism in action.

Parallel Structure of Union and State Governments in India

The state level largely mirrors the union level. At the Union, the constitutional head is the President, elected by an electoral college for a five-year term, with the Prime Minister as the real executive authority; at the state level, the constitutional head is the Governor, appointed by the President for a similar five-year term, with the Chief Minister as the real executive authority.

Just as the Prime Minister is chosen as leader of the majority party or coalition in the Lok Sabha and selects the Council of Ministers — collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha — the Chief Minister is chosen the same way in the Vidhan Sabha and selects a Council of Ministers collectively responsible to it.

The Union's legislature is always bicameral (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), but a state's can be unicameral (just the Vidhan Sabha) or bicameral (Vidhan Sabha plus a Vidhan Parishad). Both lower houses serve five-year terms and are led by a Speaker. Legislatively, the Union makes laws on the Union and Concurrent Lists, while states legislate on the State and Concurrent Lists; financially, money bills can only originate in the Lok Sabha at the Union level and only in the Vidhan Sabha at the state level.

Structure of State Legislatures

Unlike the Centre, state legislatures can be unicameral (one house) or bicameral (two houses). The legislative assembly is the Vidhan Sabha, and where it exists, the upper house — the legislative council — is the Vidhan Parishad.

Only six states currently have a bicameral system:

• Andhra Pradesh
• Bihar
• Karnataka
• Maharashtra
• Telangana
• Uttar Pradesh

Every other state is unicameral.

Challenges to the Effective Functioning of the Legislatures

India's legislatures — Parliament at the Centre and the State Assemblies — carry the vital job of:

• Enacting laws
• Overseeing administration
• Approving budgets
• Giving citizens a platform to discuss national policy, development, international relations, and grievances

Doing all this well is harder than it sounds, though — legislatures also face real challenges to functioning effectively:

• Regular absenteeism among members
• Non-cooperative conduct
• Weaker-quality debates
• Disruptions of Question Hour

Productivity in Parliament is measured by how many hours the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha actually functioned against how much time was scheduled — and the numbers tell a story:

• The 1st Lok Sabha (1952-1957) held 14 sessions and 677 sittings; by the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), that had fallen to 14 sessions and just 356 sittings.
• Former Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu noted that the house's productivity averaged about 78% between 2004-14 but fell to around 65% after, with some sessions dropping as low as 6.8% amid disruptions.
• 2018 recorded the lowest-ever productivity at 35.75%.

Parliament typically meets three times a year in sessions — the Budget, Monsoon, and Winter Sessions — each made up of individual sittings where members deliberate on proposed laws, discuss governance, and question the executive. Sessions usually run 6 hours a day, extendable for special occasions or urgent business, and state assemblies follow similar schedules.

Some of the concern around legislatures comes from the fact that a substantial share of Lok Sabha representatives have criminal cases pending against them, and that sessions are sometimes dominated by angry or biased debate rather than serious engagement with issues that matter to people. The media, including political cartoons, plays an important role in surfacing these concerns with humour — a tradition common to healthy democracies everywhere.

Even so, democracy grows stronger when citizens stay informed and engaged — asking questions, sharing views, and joining public discussions all help shape better policy. As more young leaders and diverse voices enter public life, and as technology makes it easier to stay connected with governance, the choices and participation of tomorrow's voters will shape how well Parliament and state assemblies truly serve everyone.