Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Parliamentary committees draw their authority from Article 105 (on privileges of Parliament members) and Article 118 (on Parliament’s authority to make rules for regulating its procedure and conduct of business).

Origin

• In India, the first Public Accounts Committee was constituted in April 1950.
• The practice of regularly referring bills to committees began in 1989 after government departments started forming their own standing committees.
• Prior to that, select committees or joint committees of the houses were only set up to scrutinise in detail some very important bills, but this was few and far between.

Significance

• Committee reports are usually exhaustive and provide authentic information on matters related to governance.
• Bills that are referred to committees are returned to the House with significant value addition.
• However, Parliament is not bound by the recommendations of committees.

Explanation :

• The Assam Legislative Council was the unicameral legislature of Assam in India from 1913 to 1935 and then the upper house of the bicameral legislature from 1935 to 1947, when it was disbanded by the India (Provincial Legislatures) Order, 1947.
• After Assam, West Bengal had abolished its Legislative Council in 1969.
• The Punjab Legislative Council (Abolition) Act, 1969 was adopted in 1969. Through this legislation the Punjab Legislative Council was abolished. The law came into effect on 7 January 1970.

Explanation :

• The Anti-Defection Law was passed in 1985 through the 52nd amendment to the Constitution. It added the Tenth Schedule to the Indian Constitution.
• It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.
• A legislator is deemed to have defected if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
• The law does not specify a time-period for the Presiding Officer to decide on a disqualification plea. Given that courts can intervene only after the Presiding Officer has decided on the matter, the petitioner seeking disqualification has no option but to wait for this decision to be made.

Explanation :

• The ‘Council of States’ which is also known as Rajya Sabha, a nomenclature that was announced by the chair in the House on the 23rd August, 1954 has its own distinctive features. The origin of the second Chamber can be traced to the Montague-Chelmsford Report of 1918. The Government of India Act, 1919 provided for the creation of a ‘Council of State’ as a second chamber of the then legislature with a restricted franchise which actually came into existence in 1921.
• The Vice President of India is the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• Article 80 of the Constitution lays down the maximum strength of Rajya Sabha as 250, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the two Union Territories.The present strength of Rajya Sabha, however, is 245, out of which 233 are representatives of the States and Union territories of Delhi and Puducherry and 12 are nominated by the President. The members nominated by the President are persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.
• The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution provides for allocation of seats to the States and Union Territories in Rajya Sabha. The allocation of seats is made on the basis of the population of each State.

Explanation :

• The anti-defection law is contained in the 10^th Schedule of the Constitution. It was enacted by the Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act, 1985, during the Rajiv Gandhi government. It came into effect on 1^st March 1985.
• Purpose: The purpose is to curb political defection by the legislators.
• The Speaker or the Chairman of the concerned Houses (as applicable) makes decisions on defection matters. If the Chairman or the Speaker defects, the decisions shall be made by a member elected by the House.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.

Ground of Defection

• One, if the member voluntarily gives up the membership of the party, he shall be disqualified. Voluntarily giving up the membership is not the same as resigning from a party. Even without resigning, a legislator can be disqualified if by his conduct the Speaker/Chairman of the concerned House draws a reasonable inference that the member has voluntarily given up the membership of his party.
• Second, if a legislator votes in the House against the direction of his party and his action is not condoned by his party, he can be disqualified. These are the two grounds on which a legislator can be disqualified from being a member of the House.

Exceptions

The law provides exceptions from being disqualified as a member of legislature on the following grounds:

• When political parties merge with each other entirely.
• When a political party splits into other parties, subject to not less than a third of the members splitting (as per the 93^rd Amendment to the Constitution).
• When two-thirds (or more) of members belonging to a party join another party without both their parties explicitly merging.

Amendment

• The law was amended in 2003 by which the one-third split provision which offered protection to defectors was deleted from the law.

Explanation :

• The constitution does not contain any procedure for the selection & appointment of the PM in India.
• The term of the PM is not fixed and he holds the office during the pleasure of President, however this does not mean that President can dismiss the PM any time. So long as PM enjoys the support of majority of MPs in parliament, he can’t be dismissed.

Explanation :

• National Tiger Conservation Authority is headed by the Union Minster of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.
• Zonal Council is headed by Union Home Minister and not the PM.

The PM is the chairman of NITI Aayog, National Development Council, CSIR, Inter-state Council, National Integration Council, National Ganga Mission, National Water Commission, National Board for Wildlife, etc.

Explanation :

• Demand of Grants is the sole jurisdiction of Lok Sabha.
• Adjournment motion can be moved only in Lok Sabha, as it is just like a censure to the government, so it needs the consent of 50 MPs for the adjournment.
• Censure motion can be moved against the individual minister or Council, but the government of the day need not resign in the case of censure motion.
• Passing of a No-Confidence motion leads to resignation of the government.

Explanation :

• 52^nd Constitutional Amendment Act brought the Anti-Defection in Xth Schedule of Indian Constitution.
• As per the Xth Schedule, an independent candidate can not join any party under any circumstances after he wins the election as it will amount to defection. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.

Explanation :

Voting against the ‘Whip’ can cost a legislator his/her membership, but if party condones that act within 15 days he/she can be saved from disqualification.