ORGANISATION OF PARLIAMENT‌

Under the Constitution, the Parliament of India consists of three parts viz, the President, the Council of States and the House of the People. In 1954, the Hindi names 'Rajya Sabha’ and 'Lok Sabha’ were adopted by the Council of States and the House of People respectively. The Rajya Sabha is the Upper House (Second Chamber or House of Elders) and the Lok Sabha is the Lower House (First Chamber or Popular House). The former represents the states and union territories of the Indian Union, while the latter represents the people of India as a whole.

Though the President of India is not a member of either House of Parliament and does not sit in the Parliament to attend its meetings, he is an integral part of the Parliament. This is because a bill passed by both the Houses of Parliament cannot become law without the President’s assent. He also performs certain functions relating to the proceedings of the Parliament, for example, he summons and pro-rogues both the Houses, dissolves the Lok Sabha, addresses both the Houses, issues ordinances when they are not in session, and so on.

In this respect, the framers of the Indian Constitution relied on the British pattern rather than the American pattern. In Britain, the Parliament consists of the Crown (King or Queen), the House of Lords (Upper House) and the House of Commons (Lower House). By contrast, the American president is not an integral part of the legislature. In USA, the legislature, which is known as Congress, consists of the Senate (Upper House) and the House of Representatives (Lower House).

The parliamentary form of government emphasises on the interdependence between the legislative and executive organs. Hence, we have the 'President-in-Parliament’ like the 'Crown-in- Parliament’ in Britain. The presidential form of government, on the other hand, lays stress on the separation of legislative and executive organs. Hence, the American president is not regarded as a constituent part of the Congress.