Arif wanted to know that if ministers propose most of the important bills and if the majority party often gets the government bills passed, what is the role of the Parliament in the law making process? What answer would you give him?

In the light of above question, we can say that in a parliamentary form of government it is necessary to get the government bills passed. Otherwise the government will collapse. Because the executive is accountable to the Lower House if a bill introduced by the minister does not succeed to be passed in Lok Sabha that means the party or the coalition of parties in power has lost the majority in the Lok Sabha and hence the government has to resign. To avoid this condition the majority party on combine has to often get the government bills passed. But it doesn’t mean that there is not any role of the Parliament in the law-making process.

A bill is introduced in either house of Parliament in case of non-money bill and the money bills are introduced in the Lok Sabha only. There can be different types of bills. When a non-minister proposes a bill, it is called private member’s bill. A bill proposed by the minister is called government bill. Even before a bill is introduced in the Parliament, there may be a lot of debate on the need for introducing such a bill. If the members of the majority party or coalition of the parties see that the particular bill does not fulfil the needs of the people they can pressurise the government to withdraw the same bill but if the bill is in the interest of the people, the political party may pressurise the government to initiate the bill. The bill has to go through different stages.

A lot of discussion takes place in the committees. The recommendations are sent to the House. In the third and final stage, the bill is voted upon. After passing the bill it is sent to the other House and it goes to the same procedure. The money bill can not be denied by the Rajya Sabha. It can delay it for 14 days only. After 14 days the money bill is deemed to have been passed. The ordinary bill has to be passed by both the Houses. If there is a tussle between the two Houses, an attempt is made to resolve it through a joint session of Parliament. But at all stages, the members of the Parliament take part in the discussions. And thus the role of the Parliament is most important in the law-making process.