Legislature

In the Bi-Cameral legislature there exists two Houses. One is known as the Lower House and the other is known as the Upper House. For example in India, the Lok Sabha is the Lower House of the Parliament. While the Rajya Sabha is the Upper House of the Parliament.

In most of the countries of the world like India, Canada, England where the Bi-Cameral legislature exists, the Upper House is permanent e.g. the House of Lords in Britain is hereditary. It never ceases to exist. The members to the Senate of Canada are nominated for the whole life. The one-third members of the Upper House i.e. the Rajya Sabha of India retire after every two years and in place of them the new members are elected. So. each member of the Rajya Sabha has the tenure of six years and the Rajya Sabha never dissolves.

Two arguments in favour of Uni-Cameral legislature are given below:

1. Uniformity in Legislature — The supporters of Uni-Cameralism point out that this system helps to maintain uniformity and unity in the legislature. Laws express the opinion of the people and the people cannot have two opinions on the same subject. Thus, there should be only one chamber to represent the public opinion properly.

2. Saving of time and money — It is argued in favour of Uni-Cameral system that it leads to saving of time and money. The expenditure to be incurred on the payment of salary and allowances of the members of the other house, can be utilised for other useful purposes. When a bill has to be passed only in one house, it saves time.

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As a Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Vice-President of India performs the following functions —

1. He presides over the meetings of the Rajya Sabha.

2. He preserves order in the House. If the situation goes out of control he can adjourn or suspend the meeting of the Rajya Sabha.

3. He allows members to speak.

4. He is not allowed to vote. But in case of equality of votes he has a casting vote.

5. He maintains relevancy in debates and no member is allowed to use unparliamentary language.

6. He is the custodian of the dignity of the House and protects the privileges of the members of the Rajya Sabha.

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The Parliament controls the executive in the following ways:

(i) The Prime Minister and the other ministers are taken from the Parliament and after becoming ministers, they remain the members of the Parliament. They participate in the meetings of the Parliament.

(ii) The ministers are responsible to the Parliament for their actions and policies.

(iii) The members of the Parliament can ask the ministers questions regarding the functioning of the administration. The ministers are to give a satisfactory reply to all these questions.

(iv) The members of the Parliament by introducing ‘Adjournment Motion’ can invite the attention of the Government to a serious problem or event.

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