Parliament and the Making of Laws

This is Chapter 3 of NCERT's Class 8 Social and Political Life – III (2024–25 reprint), the only chapter of Unit Two. The PDF has 18 pages: the unit opener with a photograph of a 1962 Lok Sabha results board (book p. 28), a Teacher's Note (p. 29), then the chapter (pp. 30–45), with no page offset. Its parts: why people should decide (consent and universal adult franchise); a recap of representation; the role of Parliament — selecting the national government (with the 2019 and 2009 results tables) and controlling, guiding and informing it (Question Hour, the Opposition); a long storyboard on how the domestic-violence law came about; and unpopular and controversial laws. We use seven concept sections. Every number is recomputed in the file; anything beyond the book is marked †. No map is drawn — Exercise 2's constituency map is answered in words. The chapter cites no Indian knowledge tradition; we add none.

• How this chapter relates to UPSC, honestly: Polity is heavily tested in Prelims and GS2, and Parliament is one of its most-asked areas — Question Hour, the two Houses, Money Bills, joint sittings, committees, the Speaker. This chapter gives the why (consent, representation, accountability, citizens' role); the what exactly — Articles 79–122, procedures and powers — is in the senior chapters.
• Senior chapters: keps205 (Legislature — the two Houses, law-making, control of the executive, committees, anti-defection; the main senior read); keps204 (Executive — Prime Minister, Council of Ministers, parliamentary system); keps203 (Election and Representation — first-past-the-post, reserved constituencies, the Election Commission); keps207 (Federalism — the Rajya Sabha and states). Class 9 iest106 (Working of Institutions — Parliament, the 1990 Mandal decision) and iest107 (Electoral Politics); Class 10 jess404 (Political Parties). History: lehs304 (Framing the Constitution) and Class 8 hess208 (the national movement).
• Before and after in this book: hess301 (The Indian Constitution — parliamentary form of government, separation of powers) and hess302 (Understanding Secularism) come first; hess304 (Judiciary) explains the courts' power to strike down laws mentioned here.
• UPSC from this chapter: five questions — Prelims 1979 (largest States by Lok Sabha seats), 2017 (Parliament's control through Question Hour and motions), 2026 (starred and unstarred questions); Mains GS2 2017 (pressure groups) and 2021 (Parliament and executive accountability). List and keys at the end.

• Consent (desire, approval, participation) is democracy's take-off point; universal adult franchise lets every adult citizen vote. Colonial legislatures (1885 demand; 1909 reforms) gave only limited elected representation.
• Parliament = President + Rajya Sabha + Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha: 543 elected, Speaker presides, usually 5 years. Rajya Sabha: elected by MLAs, chaired by the Vice-President; 233 + 12 nominated (maximum 250 †).
• Selecting the government: majority = 272; a coalition when no party has it (2009: INC 206 → UPA); the rest form the Opposition. The PM chooses ministers who head ministries.
• Control, guide, inform: Question Hour (the book's example: an unstarred question of 15 Dec 2017); Parliament's approval for all money matters; the Opposition highlights drawbacks.
• New laws: citizens raise needs — the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (in force 2006): shared household, protection orders, monetary relief.
• Unpopular laws: criticise, protest, petition; Parliament may amend; courts can modify or cancel unconstitutional laws. Rosa Parks (1955) → US Civil Rights Act (1964). Citizens' role continues after elections.

India became independent on 15 August 1947 after a long struggle in which many sections of society took part, inspired by freedom, equality and participation in decision-making. Under colonial rule people lived in fear of the British government and risked grave danger if they criticised it; the freedom movement changed this, and nationalists began to criticise openly and make demands. As early as 1885 the Indian National Congress demanded elected members in the legislature with the right to discuss the budget and ask questions; the reforms of 1909 allowed some elected representation. These colonial legislatures responded to nationalist demands but did not let all adults vote or let people take part in decisions. The nationalists were sure that in independent India all persons would participate; independence meant the government had to be sensitive to people's needs, not do as it pleased. The Constitution made this concrete through universal adult franchise — all adult citizens have the right to vote. The take-off point for democracy is consent — the desire, approval and participation of people. The individual citizen is the most important person, and the government and public institutions need citizens' trust. People elect representatives to Parliament; one group among them forms the government; Parliament as a whole controls and guides it. So people, through their representatives, both form and control the government.

The book's question box (p. 33) recalls Classes VI–VII: the country is divided into constituencies, each electing one representative. An MLA represents a constituency in the State Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha); an MP represents a larger constituency in the Lok Sabha. State governments deal with State subjects (for example, a State board's exams), the Central government with national ones (foreign relations, railways, currency). Democracies today are representative democracies: people do not decide every matter directly but elect representatives through elections with universal adult franchise. Representatives are elected for a fixed term — usually five years — so that they must return to the people; and people also express approval or disapproval between elections in other ways (petitions, meetings, protests, the media).

Created after 1947, the Indian Parliament expresses the people's faith in democracy — participation in decisions and government by consent — and has immense powers because it represents the people. Lok Sabha elections are held much like State elections, usually every five years; the country is divided into constituencies, each electing one person, usually from a political party. Once elected, they are Members of Parliament. The book's photographs present the Parliament (Sansad) as the supreme law-making institution with two Houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), chaired by the Vice-President, and the Lok Sabha (House of the People), with 543 members, presided over by the Speaker. Parliament consists of the President, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha functions mainly as the representative of the states; it can initiate legislation, a Bill must pass through it to become law, and so it reviews and, where needed, alters laws begun in the Lok Sabha. Its members are elected by the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies: 233 elected plus 12 nominated by the President.

After a Lok Sabha election, a list shows how many MPs belong to each party. To form the government a party must have a majority of elected MPs — with 543 seats, at least half, that is 272 or more. The Opposition is formed by all parties not part of the majority party or coalition; the largest is called the Opposition party. One of the Lok Sabha's most important functions is to select the executive — the group that implements laws, which we usually mean by ‘government’. The Prime Minister is the leader of the ruling party in the Lok Sabha; she selects ministers from her party's MPs, who take charge of areas such as health, education and finance. In the recent past it has often been hard for a single party to win a majority, so parties with similar concerns join to form a coalition government. The book's tables show both: in 2019 (17th Lok Sabha) the largest party won 303 seats; in 2009 (15th Lok Sabha) the INC won 206, not enough on its own, and formed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with allies.

While in session, Parliament begins with a Question Hour, an important mechanism through which MPs draw out information about the government's working. Questions alert the government to its shortcomings and tell it the people's opinion through their representatives; asking questions is a crucial task for every MP. The Opposition parties play a critical role in a healthy democracy: they highlight drawbacks in the government's policies and programmes and mobilise popular support for their own. The government gets valuable feedback and is kept on its toes by MPs' questions. In all matters dealing with finances, Parliament's approval is crucial. These are among the ways Parliament controls, guides and informs the government — a key aspect of Indian democracy. The book prints a real example: an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha, answered on 15 December 2017, asking the Minister of Women and Child Development whether the government proposed to converge schemes for children; the answer pointed to the National Plan of Action for Children 2016, with four priority areas — survival, health and nutrition; education and development; protection; and participation.

Parliament has an important role in making laws, and often it is groups in society that raise the need for a particular law; Parliament must be sensitive to people's problems. A shaded box defines domestic violence as injury, harm or threat of harm — physical, emotional, verbal, sexual or economic — by an adult male, usually the husband, against his wife; the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 extends ‘domestic’ to all women who ‘live or have lived together in a shared household’ with the man perpetrating the violence. The storyboard: in October 2006 two women's-organisation workers, Kusum and Shazia, read that the law has passed and recall the journey. In April 1991, women came to their office — beaten by a husband, mistreated by a son and daughter-in-law — wanting the violence to stop and not to be thrown out of their homes, without going to the police; but the existing law was criminal and offered no such options. Through the 1990s the need for a new civil law was raised in many forums, including public hearings. In 1999, Lawyers Collective, after nationwide consultations, drafted a Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill covering physical, economic, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse, women in a shared household, protection from eviction and monetary relief. Meetings were held with organisations; a Bill was introduced in 2002, but it lacked what the groups had suggested, so they opposed it, held a press conference and started an online petition. Women's organisations and the National Commission for Women made submissions to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which in December 2002 submitted recommendations to the Rajya Sabha (also tabled in the Lok Sabha), accepting most demands. A new Bill was reintroduced in 2005, passed by both Houses and sent to the President for assent; the Act came into effect in 2006. At an October 2006 press conference the activists explain that it is the first law to recognise a woman's right to a violence-free home: the right to live in a shared household, protection orders against further violence, and monetary relief for expenses including medical costs — and that ‘another long journey’ begins: making sure it is implemented. The book's point: at every stage, from establishing the need to passing the law, citizens' voices — through TV, newspapers, radio and local meetings — matter.

Sometimes Parliament passes laws that turn out to be very unpopular. A law can be constitutionally valid, and so legal, yet unacceptable to people who feel its intention is unfair or harmful. People may then criticise it, hold public meetings, write in newspapers and speak to TV channels; in a democracy citizens can express their unwillingness to accept repressive laws, and when many people feel a wrong law has been passed, Parliament comes under pressure to change it. The book's example: municipal laws on the use of public space often make hawking and street vending illegal. No one disputes that pavements should stay open for walkers, but hawkers provide essential services cheaply and efficiently to millions, and it is their livelihood; a law that favours one group and disregards the other is controversial and causes conflict. People who think a law unfair can approach the court, which can modify or cancel laws that do not adhere to the Constitution. A box recalls that Indian nationalists protested arbitrary and repressive British laws, and that Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on 1 December 1955, protesting segregation; her refusal helped start the Civil Rights Movement, which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Photographs show other forms of protest. The chapter ends: our role does not end with electing representatives; we must follow MPs' work through newspapers and the media and criticise when needed — it is the people's involvement that helps Parliament perform its representative functions.

Every margin question, question-box item and activity, in page order.

Four exercises. Try first, then open. Exercise 2's map is answered in words; no map is drawn here.

Numbers

One-liners

• Consent — desire, approval, participation — is democracy's take-off point.
• People form the government through their representatives, and control it through them.
• Parliament = President + Rajya Sabha + Lok Sabha.
• Majority in the Lok Sabha: 272 of 543; short of it, parties form a coalition.
• Question Hour keeps the government on its toes.
• No money for the government without Parliament's approval.
• New laws often start with citizens who notice a problem.
• A law can be valid yet unpopular; courts cancel only unconstitutional laws.
• Citizens' role does not end with voting.

Traps to avoid

• The 1909 reforms were the Indian Councils Act (Morley–Minto), not a Government of India Act.
• Rajya Sabha: maximum 250; present strength 245 (233 + 12).
• A Money Bill starts only in the Lok Sabha; the Rajya Sabha can only recommend within 14 days.
• The PM can be a Rajya Sabha member; the Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha.
• A minister need not be an MP for up to six months (Art 75(5)).
• Starred questions: oral, with supplementaries; unstarred: written, no supplementaries.
• 84 SC and 47 ST seats date from the 2008 delimitation, not 2004.
• Sedition was s. 124A of the IPC (1870), not a separate Act; replaced by BNS s. 152 in 2024.
• The Domestic Violence Act is of 2005 but in force from 26 October 2006; since 2016 the respondent need not be an adult male.
• The Rajya Sabha is never dissolved; one-third retire every second year.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• From this chapter: Parliament's control of the executive through Question Hour and motions (2017); starred and unstarred questions (2026); Lok Sabha seat distribution among States (1979). Learn the Article grid in section 3 and the control tools in section 5 as bare facts.
• Elsewhere: Money Bills (1979, 2015, 2024), joint sittings (1980), the Rajya Sabha's permanence (1981), equal powers of the Houses (2020), sessions (1980) and committees sit on keps205; candidates' age (1979) and elections on keps203; the parliamentary system (1979) on keps204 and iest106; anti-defection (2022) on keps205 and jess404.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• From this chapter: GS2 2021 (how far Parliament ensures executive accountability) — use the control-tools chart and the positions table, with Art 75(3); GS2 2017 (how pressure groups influence the political process) — the domestic-violence storyboard is a ready illustration of drafting, lobbying, committee submissions and implementation.
• Elsewhere: the role of individual MPs (2013, 2019), committees (2017, 2018, 2021, 2023), the Rajya Sabha (2020), the Speaker (2020, 2026), Article 105 (2014) and joint sittings (2017) are on keps205; EVMs (2018) and simultaneous elections (2017) on keps203 and iest107.
• Keep answers neutral: party results as bare figures with sources; positions attributed; no evaluation of any party, government, Speaker or judgment.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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