Institution
Parliament of India
Parliament of India is the union legislature and the only body that can make law for the whole of India, amend the Constitution, and authorise the spending of public money. It is bicameral: a directly elected Lok Sabha that commands the purse and can alone unseat a government, and an indirectly elected Rajya Sabha that represents the states and never dissolves. Every other seat of power in the union — the executive's budget, the size of the Supreme Court, the boundaries of constituencies — is defined by an Act that passed through these two chambers.
Updated
- Houses
- Two — Lok Sabha (lower) and Rajya Sabha (upper)
- Lok Sabha
- 543 elected seats; maximum of 550 under Article 81; dissolves every five years
- Rajya Sabha
- 245 seats maximum; indirectly elected by state legislatures; never dissolves, one-third retiring every two years
- Sessions
- Conventionally three a year — Budget, Monsoon, Winter; the Constitution requires only that six months not pass between sittings
- Seat
- New Parliament building, New Delhi, in use since September 2023
Role
Parliament of India is where the union’s law, money and oversight all converge. It makes law on the union and concurrent lists, and — under Article 249, on a Rajya Sabha resolution — on the state list too. It alone can amend the Constitution, under Article 368, which is why the special-majority arithmetic in each chamber is the hardest constraint any government faces. It controls the purse: no rupee leaves the Consolidated Fund of India without an appropriation Act, and the Union Budget presented by the Ministry of Finance is only a proposal until the Lok Sabha votes the demands for grants. It supervises the executive through question hour, zero hour, motions, and the 24 department-related standing committees constituted since 1993. Governments are made and unmade here: a council of ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, and only the Lok Sabha can withdraw confidence.
The two chambers are deliberately unequal. A bill ordinarily passes only if both Houses agree in identical terms; deadlock is broken by a joint sitting, where the Lok Sabha’s larger numbers dominate. But money bills are asymmetric — they originate only in the Lok Sabha, and the Rajya Sabha may recommend changes that the Lok Sabha is free to ignore, returning the bill within 14 days regardless. That asymmetry is why the classification of a bill as a money bill is itself contested, and why such disputes reach the judiciary. The Rajya Sabha’s countervailing strengths are structural rather than financial: it is permanent, it represents the states, its concurrence is indispensable for a constitutional amendment, and it cannot be bypassed by a joint sitting on one. Between sessions the executive can legislate by ordinance under Article 123, but an ordinance lapses six weeks after Parliament reassembles unless replaced by an Act — so the ordinance route ultimately returns to this floor for ratification. Constituency boundaries, on which the Lok Sabha’s own composition rests, are drawn under laws Parliament passes and administered by the Election Commission.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
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First Parliament of independent India constituted
Both Houses sat for the first time under the 1950 Constitution, replacing the Constituent Assembly as the union legislature.
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Anti-defection law inserted as the Tenth Schedule
The 52nd Amendment made defection a ground for disqualification and handed the decision to the presiding officer of the House — the Speaker in the Lok Sabha, the Chairman in the Rajya Sabha. The merger exception in paragraph 2 of the Schedule remains the most contested part of the law.
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Department-related standing committees established
The Rules Committees of the 10th Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha reported on 29 March 1993; 17 committees covering all union ministries were constituted with effect from April 1993, replacing three subject committees set up in 1989. The system was restructured to 24 committees in July 2004.
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Rajya Sabha passes the Women's Reservation Bill; it lapses in the Lok Sabha
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and state assembly seats for women, cleared the Rajya Sabha but was never taken up by the Lok Sabha and lapsed in 2014. Because a Rajya Sabha bill does not die with a dissolution, the episode became the standing illustration of how the permanent chamber can pass a constitutional amendment that the elected chamber simply declines to schedule.
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Parliament passes the 99th Amendment and the NJAC Act, taking over judicial appointments
The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (99th Amendment) Bill on 13 August 2014 and the Rajya Sabha on 14 August, replacing the collegium with a National Judicial Appointments Commission; 16 state legislatures ratified it. It was Parliament's most direct attempt to legislate the composition of the Supreme Court's own appointing body.
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Supreme Court strikes down the 99th Amendment, restoring the collegium
A five-judge Constitution Bench voided both the 99th Amendment and the NJAC Act by 4-1, holding that judicial primacy in appointments is part of the basic structure. It is the only constitutional amendment of the last two decades to be struck down outright, and it fixed the outer limit of Parliament's amending power over the judiciary.
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Aadhaar Act passed as a money bill; Rajya Sabha's amendments rejected
The Speaker certified the Aadhaar Bill under Article 110, so the Rajya Sabha could only recommend changes. It returned the bill with amendments on 16 March 2016 and the Lok Sabha rejected them, passing the Act by voice vote. The certification made the money-bill route a live constitutional question about whether the upper House can be bypassed on ordinary policy.
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101st Amendment creates the GST Council, pooling Parliament's tax power with the states
The Rajya Sabha passed the amended bill on 3 August 2016 and the Lok Sabha on 8 August; 31 state legislatures ratified it and assent followed on 8 September 2016. It is the largest voluntary transfer of Parliament's indirect-taxing autonomy since 1950, moving rate-setting into a joint Union-state council.
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Budget advanced to 1 February and the Railway Budget folded into the Union Budget
The separate Rail Budget, presented since 1924, was merged into the Union Budget in 2016, and from 2017 the budget moved from the last working day of February to 1 February. The shift gave Parliament time to complete the full appropriation cycle before the financial year began, ending the routine reliance on a vote on account.
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103rd Amendment adds 10 per cent EWS reservation in four days
Introduced in the Lok Sabha on 8 January 2019 and passed 323-3 the next day, then passed 165-7 by the Rajya Sabha on 10 January, with assent on 12 January. Motions to send it to a select committee were rejected. Introduction to assent took four days — the fastest constitutional amendment of the period.
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Parliament reorganises Jammu and Kashmir and endorses the Article 370 order
The Rajya Sabha passed the Reorganisation Bill 125-61 on 5 August 2019 and the Lok Sabha 370-70 on 6 August, alongside a statutory resolution supporting the presidential order that rendered most of Article 370 inoperative. Assent came on 9 August and the Act took effect on 31 October 2019, converting a state into two union territories by ordinary Act.
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Citizenship (Amendment) Act passed in three days from introduction to assent
Introduced on 9 December 2019, passed by the Lok Sabha 311-80 on 10 December and by the Rajya Sabha 125-105 on 11 December, with assent on 12 December. The rules operationalising it were notified only on 11 March 2024, a four-year gap between Parliament's Act and the executive's rules.
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Three farm bills passed; Rajya Sabha voice vote becomes the procedural flashpoint
The Lok Sabha passed the bills on 15 and 18 September 2020 and the Rajya Sabha on 20 and 22 September, with assent on 28 September. In the Rajya Sabha, where the government did not hold a majority, the presiding officer put the bills to a voice vote over opposition demands for a recorded division — the dispute was about the House's counting procedure as much as the policy.
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105th Amendment restores states' power to identify backward classes
Passed by the Lok Sabha 380-0 on 10 August 2021 and unanimously by the Rajya Sabha on 11 August, with assent on 18 August. It reversed the May 2021 Supreme Court reading of the 102nd Amendment, which had held that only the Union could notify socially and educationally backward classes.
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Both Houses repeal the three farm laws on the opening day of the Winter Session
The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 passed the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the same day, 29 November 2021, ten days after the repeal was announced. Both Houses cleared it without a substantive debate, undoing legislation Parliament had enacted 14 months earlier.
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GNCTD Amendment Act overrides a Supreme Court judgment on Delhi's services
After the Supreme Court held on 11 May 2023 that Delhi's elected government controls services, an ordinance on 19 May reversed it and Parliament converted the ordinance into an Act — Lok Sabha 3 August, Rajya Sabha 131-102 on 8 August, assent 11 August with retrospective effect from 19 May. It is a clean instance of the ordinance-then-ratify route being used to displace a constitutional bench ruling.
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New Parliament building enters use; 106th Amendment passed in it
The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and state assembly seats for women, was the first bill taken up in the new building. The Lok Sabha passed it 454-2 on 20 September 2023 and the Rajya Sabha 214-0 on 21 September. Its commencement was tied to a delimitation exercise following the first census published after the Act.
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Parliament replaces the colonial criminal codes with three new sanhitas
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam passed the Lok Sabha on 20 December 2023 and the Rajya Sabha on 21 December, with assent on 25 December and commencement on 1 July 2024. They replaced the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and its companion statutes, and were taken up in a Winter Session from which a large bloc of opposition members had been suspended.
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Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill introduced and sent to a joint committee
The bill would remove a minister — including a Prime Minister or Chief Minister — accused of an offence punishable by five years or more and detained for 30 consecutive days, automatically on the 31st day. It was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee of both Houses on the day of introduction.
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Budget Session 2026 convenes; extended for the delimitation package
The session ran from 28 January to 18 April 2026 across 31 sittings. It had been scheduled to adjourn on 2 April and was extended to take up the delimitation bills.
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Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill negatived in the Lok Sabha
Introduced on 16 April 2026 and rejected the next day. The bill would have raised the Lok Sabha ceiling from 550 to 850 seats, permitted delimitation on the 2011 census, and delinked women's reservation from the post-2023 census. Drishti IAS reports it drew 298 votes against a threshold of 352 in a House of 528 present. The companion Delimitation Bill, 2026 and Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 were withdrawn.
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Supreme Court judge strength raised by ordinance, not by Act
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026 was promulgated under Article 123, raising the sanctioned strength from 33 to 37 judges besides the Chief Justice. The Union Cabinet had approved a bill for the same purpose earlier in May. A bill to replace the ordinance is on the Monsoon Session list.
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Monsoon Session 2026 scheduled to convene
Announced to run from 20 July to 13 August 2026 across 19 sittings, with the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 and the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 listed for passage.
Frequently asked
- What is Parliament of India?
- Parliament of India is the union legislature and the only body that can make law for the whole of India, amend the Constitution, and authorise the spending of public money. It is bicameral: a directly elected Lok Sabha that commands the purse and can alone unseat a government, and an indirectly elected Rajya Sabha that represents the states and never dissolves. Every other seat of power in the union — the executive's budget, the size of the Supreme Court, the boundaries of constituencies — is defined by an Act that passed through these two chambers.
- When was Parliament of India established?
- Parliament of India was established 1952.
- What does Parliament of India do?
- Its remit covers Lawmaking for the union and concurrent lists, and for states under Article 249, Constitutional amendment under Article 368, requiring special majorities in both Houses, Control of the purse — the Union Budget, demands for grants, appropriation and finance bills, Oversight of the executive: question hour, debates, motions, and department-related standing committees, Approval or lapse of ordinances promulgated by the executive between sessions, Election and removal functions — the President's election, and removal of judges and certain officeholders.
- What is the latest on Parliament of India?
- As of 2026-07-17: Monsoon Session 2026 scheduled to convene. Announced to run from 20 July to 13 August 2026 across 19 sittings, with the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 and the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 listed for passage.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
- Official website
sansad.in/
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Canonical Parliament home — President, Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and constitutional history of the legislature.
sansad.in/poi
- Lok Sabha department
House of the People: Speaker, members, party-wise strength, house business, sitting calendar and press releases.
sansad.in/ls
- Rajya Sabha department
Council of States: Chairman, Deputy Chairman, members, party-wise strength, Zero Hour notices and business.
sansad.in/rs
- Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs department
Executive ministry handling government business in Parliament — assurances (OAMS), subordinate legislation, session press releases, Youth Parliament.
www.mpa.gov.in/
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Searchable archive of starred/unstarred questions and ministry replies, filterable by Lok Sabha, session, member and ministry.
sansad.in/ls/questions/questions-and-answers
- Bills before Parliament (Lok Sabha legislation) legislation
Full bill database (3,561+ entries) with bill type, sponsoring ministry, passage dates in each House, status, Act number and gazette notification.
sansad.in/ls/legislation/bills