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The Parliament of India (or Sansad) is the federal
Federal government

A federal government is the common government of a federation.The structure of federal governments vary from institution to institution based on a broad definition of federation....
 and supreme legislative body of India. It consists of the office of President of India
President of India

The President of India or Rashtrapati is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Military of India....
 and two houses, the lower house, known as the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha is the direct election lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2008 there have been fourteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India....
 and the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services....
.. It is located in New Delhi at Sansad Bhavan on Sansad Marg. Any bill
Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a legislature that has not been ratification, adopted, or received royal assent. Once a bill has become law, it is thereafter an Statute; but in popular usage the two terms are often treated interchangeably....
 can become an act
Act of Parliament

An act of Parliament is a statute wikt:enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. It is broadly equivalent to an act of Congress in the United States....
 only after it is passed by both the houses of the Parliament and assented by the President.






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The Parliament of India (or Sansad) is the federal
Federal government

A federal government is the common government of a federation.The structure of federal governments vary from institution to institution based on a broad definition of federation....
 and supreme legislative body of India. It consists of the office of President of India
President of India

The President of India or Rashtrapati is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Military of India....
 and two houses, the lower house, known as the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha is the direct election lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2008 there have been fourteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India....
 and the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services....
.. It is located in New Delhi at Sansad Bhavan on Sansad Marg. Any bill
Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a legislature that has not been ratification, adopted, or received royal assent. Once a bill has become law, it is thereafter an Statute; but in popular usage the two terms are often treated interchangeably....
 can become an act
Act of Parliament

An act of Parliament is a statute wikt:enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. It is broadly equivalent to an act of Congress in the United States....
 only after it is passed by both the houses of the Parliament and assented by the President. The Central Hall of the Parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
 is used for combined sittings of the lower and upper houses and is of historical significance.

Etymology

Sansad is a Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 word for House.

Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha is the direct election lower house of the Parliament of India. As of 2008 there have been fourteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India....
 is also known as the "House of the People" or the lower house
Lower house

A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its theoretical position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power....
. Almost all of its members are directly elected by citizens of India. It is the more powerful of the two houses and can precede or overrule the Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services....
 (upper house) in certain matters.

The Lok Sabha can have up to 552 members as envisaged in the Constitution of India
Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, Directive Principles in India and duties of citizens....
 (Article 81). It has a term of 5 years but it may be dissolved earlier by the President in the event of no party getting a majority. To be eligible for membership of Lok Sabha, a person must be a citizen of India and must not be less than 25 years of age. Up to 530 members can be elected from the states, up to 20 members from the Union territories and no more than two members can be nominated by the President
President

President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, company, trade unions, university, and country. Etymology, a "president" is one who Wiktionary:Preside, who sits in leadership ....
 of India.

As of now, the Lok Sabha has 545 members, 530 members from the states, 13 members from the Union territories and two nominated members representing the Anglo Indian community. Some seats are reserved for representatives of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The representatives from States and Union territories are directly elected by the people on the basis of universal adult suffrage. Every citizen who is over 18 years of age, irrespective of gender, caste, religion or race, who is otherwise not disqualified, is eligible to vote.

Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature, science, and social services....
 is also known as "Council of States" or the upper house
Upper house

An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house....
. Its members are indirectly elected by members of legislative bodies of the States
States and territories of India

India is a Federal_republic union of states comprising twenty-eight State s and seven Union Territory. The states and territories are further Subdivisions of India into districts and so on....
.

The Rajya Sabha has 250 members in all. Elections to it are scheduled and the chamber cannot be dissolved. Each member has a term of 6 years and elections are held for one-third of the seats after every 2 years. The composition is specified in Article 80 of the Constitution of India
Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, Directive Principles in India and duties of citizens....
.
  • 12 members are nominated by the President from people having special knowledge
    Knowledge

    Knowledge is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation....
     or experience
    Experience

    Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
     in literature
    Literature

    Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
    , science
    Science

    In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
    , art
    Art

    Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
     or social services.
  • Representatives of States are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly
    Legislative Assembly

    Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its chambers of parliament. The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as in a number of Latin American countries....
     of the State in accordance with system of proportional representation
    Proportional representation

    Proportional representation , sometimes referred to as full representation, is a category of voting systems aimed at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive ....
     by means of single transferable vote
    Single transferable vote

    The Single transferable vote is a voting system of preferential voting designed to minimize wasted votes and provide proportional representation while ensuring that votes are explicitly expressed for individual candidates rather than for party lists....
    .
  • Representatives of Union Territories are indirectly elected by members of an electoral college
    Electoral college

    An electoral college is a set of Votings who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entity, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way....
     for that territory in accordance with system of proportional representation
    Proportional representation

    Proportional representation , sometimes referred to as full representation, is a category of voting systems aimed at a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive ....
    .


The Council of States is designed to maintain the federal
Federation

A federation is a Political union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the state is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a Unilateralism decision of the central government....
 character of the country. The number of members from a state depends on the population
Population

File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings....
 of the state (e.g. 31 from Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a States and territories of India located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
 and one from Nagaland
Nagaland

Nagaland is a hill States and territories of India located in the far North-East India part of India. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arunachal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Burma to the east and Manipur to the south....
).

The minimum age for a person to become a member of Rajya Sabha is 30 years

Parliament House (Sansad Bhavan)

The Parliament House (Sansad Bhavan) is a circular building designed by the British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, Order of Merit , Order of the Indian Empire, Royal Academy, Royal Institute of British Architects, LLD was a leading 20th century British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era....
 and Sir Herbert Baker
Herbert Baker

Sir Herbert Baker was a United Kingdom architect.Baker was the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, 1892?1912. He designed the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa; and with Edwin Lutyens was instrumental in designing New Delhi....
 in 1912–1913. Construction began in 1921, and in 1927 the building was opened as the home of the Council of State
Council of State

The Council of State is the name of an organ of government in many states, and especially in republics. The name Council of State is applied to different types of bodies in different states, from the formal name for the cabinet to a non-executive advisory body surrounding a head of state....
, the Central Legislative Assembly
Central Legislative Assembly

File:Sansad Bhavan-2.jpgThe Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council , implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms....
, and the Chamber of Princes
Chamber of Princes

The Chamber of Princes was an institution established in 1920 by royal proclamation to provide a forum in which the rulers of the Indian princely states could voice their needs and aspirations to the government of British India....
.

The roof of the outer circle of the structure is supported by 144 granite pillars. The Houses are located on Janpath, a stone's throw away from the presidential palace (Rashtrapati Bhavan
Rashtrapati Bhavan

Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the President of India, located in New Delhi, Delhi, India. Until 1950 it was known as "Viceroy's House" and served as the residence of the Governor-General of India....
).It is also seen from the India Gate
India Gate

The India Gate is one of the largest war memorials in India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate is prominent landmark in Delhi and commemorates the members of the erstwhile British Indian Army who lost their lives fighting for the Indian Empire in World War I and the Afghan Wars....
.

The former Chamber of Princes was home to the Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India is the highest court of the land as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India. According to the Constitution of India, the role of the Supreme Court is that of a federal court, guardian of the Constitution and the highest court of appeal....
 until 1958.

Reference


External links